JT 


^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 


Presented    by    ■  ro\  ^TS- J  0)C\X~-\\(2/ vCX^J 


Section 


d.T74 


i/ 


THE    STORY    OF    JONAH 

IN    THE 

LIGHT  OF   HIGHER  CRITICISM 


byX 
luther  tracy  townsend,  d.d. 

Author  of  "  Credo"  "  Fate  of  Republics,"  ^''Evolu- 
tion or  Creation"  etc.,  etc. 


NEW  YORK: 

Funk  and  Wagnalls  Company 

London  and  Toronto 

1897 


Copyright,  iSqj 
By  Luther  Tracy  Townsend 


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PREFACE* 

Scepticism  seldom  varies  its  attacks 
upon  the  supernaturalism  of  Christianity 
without  having  something  old  or  new  to 
say  concerning  the  story  of  Jonah.  One 
would  think  from  the  frequency  and  vio- 
lence of  the  attacks  upon  the  historical 
integrity  of  this  story  that  it  is  by  far  the 
most  vulnerable  narrative  in  the  Bible. 

Ten  years  ago  a  discussion  on  the  book 
of  Jonah,  in  New  England,  led  the  author 
of  this  brief  treatise  to  an  investigation  of 
the  subject.  A  sermon,  entitled  "The 
Story  of  Jonah,"  was  prepared  and 
preached  in  Boston  and  then  in  Mr. 
Beecher's  church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

The  following  request  for  its  publica- 
tion, a  few  days  later,  was  received:  — 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  June  i,  1887. 

Dear  Sir,  —  Having  listened  with  great 

interest  to  the  sermon  which  you  delivered 

in  Plymouth  Church,   Sunday   morning, 

6 


6  PREFACE, 


May  29,  and  knowing  that  many  desire  to 
possess  it  in  some  form  for  preservation, 
we  ask  of  you  the  kindness  to  consent  to 
its  pubHcation,  and  to  put  the  manuscript 
in  our  hands  for  that  purpose.  We  are, 
with  sincere  esteem, 

Fraternally  yours, 

R.  W.  ROPES 

A.   D.   WHEELOCK 

GEORGE  W.  BRUSH 

A.   W.  TENNEY 

F.   G.   SMITH 

J.  C.  SAGE 

AUGUSTUS   STORES. 

To  the  Rev.  Luther  T.  Townsend,  D.D., 

Professor  of  Theology^  Bostoti  University. 

In  compliance  with  this  request  the 
sermon  was  published  in  a  small  pamphlet 
edition  for  private  circulation. 

Recently  the  historical  integrity  of  the 
book  of  Jonah  has  received  such  fresh 
and  widespread  attention  that  the  author, 
after  seeking  for  all  available  additional 
information  on  the  subject,  prepared  a 
sermon  entitled  "  The  Story  of  Jonah  in 
the  Light  of  Higher  Criticism,"  which  was 


PREFACE. 


preached  in  the  Metropolitan  M.E.  Church, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

The  following  formal  request  was  made 

by  the  members  of  the  Official  Board  of 

that  church :  — 

Washington,  D.  C,  February  23,  1897. 

Rev.   L.    T.    Townsend,    D.D.,   Riggs 

House,  City. 

Dear  Sir,  —  Believing  that  your  logical, 

forcible,  and  eloquent  sermon  preached  in 

Metropolitan  M.  E.  Church  last  Sunday 

evening,  on  the  subject  of  "Jonah  and 

Higher  Criticism,"  was  most  timely  and 

should  receive  a  much  wider  hearing  than 

even  that  large  congregation  could  give  it, 

we  would  most  respectfully  ask  for  a  copy 

for  publication. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

J.   D.  CROISSANT 
H.   D.   LYNCH 
ANDREW   B.  DUVALL 
THOMAS  H.  ANDERSON 

J.  H.  Mccarty 

B.   F.   LEIGHTON 

Members  of  the  Official  Boards 

Metropolitan  M.  E,  Church. 


PREFACE. 


Seeing  no  good  reason  why  this  request 
should  not  be  complied  with,  the  manu- 
script, after  revision  and  several  additions 
especially  by  way  of  notes  and  references, 
was  sent  to  the  publishers. 

It  scarcely  need  be  said  that  the  author 
is  grateful  for  the  appreciation  shown  in 
these  requests,  and  hopes  that  the  publica- 
tion, in  some  measure,  may  serve  the 
cause  of  truth. 

Washington,  D.  C,  March,  1897. 


STORY  OF  JONAH  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF 
HIGHER  CRITICISM. 


The  thought  of  the  present 
time  is  somewhat  sceptical  and 
somewhat  superficial.  Except, 
however,  in  case  of  a  few  extreme 
radicals,  the  modern  sceptic  does 
not  scoff  at  the  Christian  religion 
as  a  system  ;  indeed,  he  speaks  ap- 
provingly of  its  humane  efforts  to 
benefit  the  race,  and  frequently 
enters  its  communion. 

But  he  does  not  hesitate  to  ex- 
press with  great  freedom  his  doubt 
as  to  many  of  the  teachings  of 
primitive  or  orthodox  Christianity, 

9 


10  STORY   OF  JONAH 

and  feels  at  liberty  to  believe  only 
so  much  of  the  Bible  as  may  suit 
his  fancy,  whatever   that  may  be. 

To  this  modern  sceptic  the  ac- 
count of  creation,  recorded  in  Gen- 
esis, is  a  myth,  and  the  story  of 
the  flood  is  to  him  unauthorized 
tradition,  while  such  Bible  narra- 
tives as  the  passage  of  Israel 
through  the  Red  Sea,  the  den  of 
lions,  the  fiery  furnace,  as  well  as 
all  other  Bible  miracles,  being  in 
his  judgment  contrary  to  the  es- 
tablished order  of  things,  are  dis- 
credited, and  the  story  of  Jonah, 
in  addition  to  being  discredited,  is 
regarded  by  him  as  quite  suitable 
for  the  amusement  of  children,  and 
is  labeled  ''The  Pickwick"  and 
^'The  Biglow  Papers  of  the  Bible." 

This  type  of  unbelief  and  other 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.      11 

milder  forms  of  scepticism,  as  the 
reader  scarcely  need  be  told,  have 
invaded  within  a  few  years  many 
of  the  churches  of  Christendom. 

There  are  clergymen  of  high 
standing  who,  even  in  the  pulpit 
and  on  the  Sabbath  day,  question 
not  a  few  of  the  narratives  re- 
corded in  the  Bible,  and  teach  that 
the  story  of  Jonah  has  no  histor- 
ical basis  on  which  to  rest. 

Only  a  few  weeks  ago  this  nar- 
rative is  said  to  have  been  so 
handled  in  the  pulpit  by  an  emi- 
nent clergyman,  who  is  also  a  lit- 
erary critic,  as  to  excite  great  mer- 
riment and  outbursts  of  laughter, 
though  such  results,  he  has  told 
us  since,  were  not  intended. 

But  if  the  story,  as  this  critic  in 
so    many   words    assures   us,    "is 


12  STORY   OF  JONAH 

wholly  fiction,"  why  should  not 
just  such  facetious  and  laughful 
results  have  been  intended  ?  Im- 
posture ruthlessly  should  be  ex- 
posed, and  shafts  of  ridicule  are 
among  the  best  agencies  in  expos- 
ing it.  If  the  story  of  Jonah  is 
not  true,  if  it  is  "  wholly  fiction," 
if  the  amusement  that  arises  from 
*'the  simple  statement  of  the  story 
shows,"  as  the  critic  says,  "  the 
incongruity  which  lies  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  narrative,"  ^  then  as  a 
literary  critic  one  has  no  occasion 
to  offer  one's  apology  for  raising  a 
laugh.  Indeed  apology  is  quite  out 
of  place. 

If  this  story  is  "  wholly  fiction," 
and  if  the  Church  teaches  that  it  is 
wholly  historic,  we  would   justify 

1  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      13 

any  man  in  making  it  a  laughing- 
stock in  order  to  overthrow  the 
error,  and  could  not  feel  self-con- 
demned in  contributing  an  effort 
to  show  the  world  its  inconsisten- 
cies and  incongruities.  And  we 
do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  viewed 
by  the  Scriptural  standard  this 
story  of  Jonah,  if  it  is  a  mere  par- 
able, does  in  no  way  deserve  the 
rank  to  which  the  critics  have  as- 
signed it,  and  owing  to  the  absurd- 
ities in  its  conception  it  is,  in  our 
judgment,  when  viewed  as  a  para- 
ble, an  ethical  and  a  literary  failure. 
As  might  be  supposed,  this  story, 
ever  since  the  dawn  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  has  received  at  the  hands 
of  unbelievers  a  good  deal  of  atten- 
tion. It  provoked  the  mockery  of 
Celsus  in  the  second    century,  of 


14  STORY  OF  JONAH 

Zosimus  in  the  fifth,  of  Thomas 
Paine  in  the  last,  while  in  the  pres- 
ent century  and  in  our  own  coun- 
try there  is  found  a  large  number  of 
sceptics,  conspicuous  among  whom 
is  a  brilliant  Western  lawyer,  who 
has  figured  quite  prominently  in 
the  past  as  a  foe  of  the  Christian 
faith,  though  at  the  present  time 
he  is  much  overshadowed  in  his 
opposition  to  the  supernaturalism 
of  the  book  of  Jonah,  at  least  in 
public  thought,  by  the  clergyman 
and  critic  already  referred  to  —  the 
genial,  gentlemanly,  literary,  and 
distinguished  successor  of  Mr. 
Beecher  in  Plymouth  Church, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

It  would  not,  therefore,  be  sur- 
prising, in  view  of  the  quantity, 
quality,   and    historic   persistency 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      15 

of  this  adverse  criticism,  and  in 
view  of  the  sceptical  character  of 
the  age  in  which  we  live,  if  the 
members  of  the  various  Christian 
denominations  of  our  country  were 
found  holding,  at  least,  quite  a 
variety  of  opinions  as  to  the  re- 
markable narrative  before  us. 

There  are  those  doubtless  who 
believe  the  story  literally,  without 
change  or  modification.  Others 
are  confident  that  the  narrative  is 
"simply  an  allegory,"  '*a  legend," 
**a  satirical  poem,"  "  a  parable  in 
ethics,"  or  "  a  fiction  in  prophetic 
dress."  Others  are  entirely  in 
doubt  as  to  the  interpretation  that 
should  be  given  to  this  story,  while 
a  few  others  entertain  the  opinion 
that  it  is  altogether  too  late  to  dis- 
cuss any  of  the  incredible  stories 


16  STORY   OF  JONAH 

of  the  Bible.  Men  of  this  class 
insist  that  all  such  accounts  should 
be  dismissed  from  our  thought 
and  from  our  talk,  since  they  can 
no  longer  be  believed  by  educated 
people.  We  would  better  spend 
our  time,  it  is  said,  in  discuss- 
ing the  practical  phases  of  the 
gospel,  and  the  vital  questions  of 
modern  life.  '*  Let  the  dead  past 
bury  its  dead  out  of  our  sight  and 
hearing  while  we  pass  on  into  the 
brightness  and  serenity  of  the 
approaching  centuries." 

Now,  therefore,  in  such  a  con- 
flict of  opinion  it  is  no  matter  of 
wonder  that  many  of  our  adult 
people,  and  very  many  of  our  young 
people,  as  suggested,  have  fallen 
into  the  tide  and  are  drifting  in 
the  direction  of  a  pronounced  un- 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      17 

belief,  not  only  as  to  the  narrative 
before  us,  but  as  to  every  other 
revelation  in  the  Bible  that  in- 
volves the  supernatural.  Amid 
such  an  unsettling  of  faiths  and 
opinions,  what  shall  be  done  ?  is 
a  question  of  no  small  impor- 
tance. 

In  attempting  an  answer  we 
must  bear  in  mind  that  the  day 
of  pure  theological  dogmatism  is 
past ;  hence  if  one  would  seek  to 
be  of  service,  either  to  the  honest 
inquirer  or  to  the  honest  sceptic, 
there  must  be  resort  in  Bible 
study  not  so  much  to  what  is 
known  as  ecclesiastical  authority 
as  to  what  is  termed  the  rational 
or  literary  or  scientific  method ; 
that  method  we  mean  which  is  em- 
ployed by  the  modern  scientist  in 


18  STORY  OF  JONAH 

his  Study  and  teaching  of  natural 
phenomena.  It  is  the  method  of 
the  skillful  lawyer  when  preparing 
his  case  and  presenting  it  to  the 
jury.  It  is  the  method  of  the 
physician  when  making  a  diagnosis 
of  the  disease  he  is  treating,  or 
when  deciding  on  the  remedies  to 
be  employed.  And  it  is  the 
method  that  hes  at  the  basis  of 
all  literary  criticism  and  especially 
of  "  higher  criticism,"  and  against 
such  criticism  no  objection  should 
be  raised,  for  it  is  no  bugbear  or 
other  kind  of  wonderful  or  frightful 
thing ;  it  is  simply  the  bringing  of 
a  subject  under  the  light  of  all 
the  facts  that  relate  to  it. 

In  prosecuting,  for  instance,  any 
historical  subject,  or  rather  one 
purporting    to    be   historical,   the 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.       19 

literary  or  scientific  method,  which, 
as  we  said,  is  the  method  of  higher 
criticism,  leads  the  investigator 
first  of  all  to  bring  before  the 
mind  the  various  facts  involved; 
then,  after  testing  their  reliability, 
he  is  prepared  to  state  his  conclu- 
sions, though  if  he  is  a  wise  man 
he  will  say,  "  These  conclusions 
are  not  necessarily  final,  they  are 
merely  tentative ;  for  new  facts 
may  be  discovered  to-morrow  that 
will  demand  radically  different  or 
at  least  modified  conclusions." 

Now  as  this  scientific  method 
seems  applicable  to  all  discussions 
on  all  sorts  of  subjects,  profes- 
sional, literary,  historical,  philo- 
sophical, and  scientific,  why  may 
we  not  apply  it  to  the  records  of 
the   Bible  ?     The   Bible   nowhere 


20  STORY  OF  JONAH 

asks  for  special  favoritism.  "  Come 
let  us  reason  together  "  is  its  invi- 
tation to  all. 

Hence  in  a  plain  narrative  form 
let  us  bring  before  the  mind  the 
more  important  facts,  or  what  are 
said  to  be  facts,  concerning  the 
story  of  Jonah  as  recorded  in  the 
Bible,  and  then  we  may  seek  to 
ascertain  what  parts  of  the  narra- 
tive, if  any,  are  credible  and  what 
parts  appear,  at  least  on  the  sur- 
face, to  be  incredible.  After  doing 
this  we  may  reach  a  conclusion. 

The  incidents  recorded  are 
these  :  — 

Jonah,  the  son  of  Amittai,  was 
born  at  Gath-hepher,  about  eight 
hundred  years  before  Christ.  He 
was  what  is  termed  a  Jehovah 
prophet,   and,    after    prophesying 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      21 

concerning  Israel,  was  sent  to 
Nineveh,  the  metropolis  of  the 
Assyrian  Empire,  to  preach  re- 
pentance to  that  great  and  wicked 
city. 

It  is  recorded  that,  instead  of 
obeying  the  command,  he  took  pas- 
sage at  Joppa  for  Tarshish,  —  either 
the  modern  Tarsus  in  Cilicia,  or 
else  Tartessus  in  Spain.  The  latter 
place  is  the  more  probable. 

The  narrative  from  this  point  is 
so  briefly  and  faultlessly  stated 
that  we  attempt  no  paraphrase, 
but  give  the  story  up  to  the  point 
of  Jonah's  casting  into  the  sea  pre- 
cisely as  we  find  it  :  — 

♦'  But  the  Lord  sent  out  a  great  wind 
into  the  sea,  and  there  was  a  mighty 
tempest  in  the  sea,  so  that  the  ship  was 
like  to  be  broken. 

"  Then  the  mariners  were  afraid,  and 


STORY   OF  JONAH 


cried  every  man  unto  his  god,  and  cast 
forth  the  wares  that  were  in  the  ship  into 
the  sea,  to  lighten  it  of  them.  But  Jonah 
was  gone  down  into  the  sides  of  the  ship ; 
and  he  lay,  and  was  fast  asleep. 

"So  the  shipmaster  came  to  him,  and 
said  unto  him,  What  meanest  thou,  O 
sleeper?  arise,  call  upon  thy  God,  if  so 
be  that  God  will  think  upon  us,  that  we 
perish  not. 

'•  And  they  said  every  one  to  his  fellow. 
Come,  and  let  us  cast  lots,  that  we  may 
know  for  whose  cause  this  evil  is  upon  us. 
So  they  cast  lots,  and  the  lot  fell  upon 
Jonah. 

"Then  said  they  unto  him,  Tell  us,  we 
pray  thee,  for  whose  cause  this  evil  is 
upon  us;  What  is  thine  occupation?  and 
whence  comest  thou?  what  is  thy  coun- 
try? and  of  what  people  art  thou? 

"And  he  said  unto  them,  I  am  a 
Hebrew;  and  I  fear  the  Lord,  the  God 
of  heaven,  which  hath  made  the  sea  and 
the  dry  land. 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.       23 

"Then  were  the  men  exceedingly 
afraid,  and  said  unto  him,  Why  hast  thou 
done  this?  For  the  men  knew  that  he 
fled  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  be- 
cause he  had  told  them. 

"  Then  said  they  unto  him,  What  shall 
we  do  unto  thee,  that  the  sea  may  be 
calm  unto  us?  for  the  sea  wrought,  and 
was  tempestuous. 

"  And  he  said  unto  them,  Take  me  up, 
and  cast  me  forth  into  the  sea ;  so  shall 
the  sea  be  calm  unto  you  :  for  I  know  that 
for  my  sake  this  great  tempest  is  upon 
you. 

"  Nevertheless  the  men  rowed  hard  to 
bring  it  to  land ;  but  they  could  not : 
for  the  sea  wrought,  and  was  tempestuous 
against  them. 

"  Wherefore  they  cried  unto  the  Lord, 
and  said.  We  beseech  thee,  O  Lord,  we 
beseech  thee,  let  us  not  perish  for  this 
man's  life,  and  lay  not  upon  us  innocent 
blood :  for  thou,  O  Lord,  hast  done  as  it 
pleased  thee. 


24  STORY  OF  JONAH 

**  So  they  took  up  Jonah,  and  cast  him 
forth  into  the  sea:  and  the  sea  ceased 
from  her  raging. 

"  Then  the  men  feared  the  Lord  ex- 
ceedingly, and  offered  a  sacrifice  unto  the 
Lord,  and  made  vows. 

"Now  the  Lord  had  prepared  a  great 
fish  to  swallow  up  Jonah.  And  Jonah 
was  in  the  belly  of  the  fish  three  days  and 
three  nights."     (Chap,  i,   :  4-17-) 

This  account  is  followed  by  what 
seems  to  be  the  most  improbable 
statement  of  all,  that  Jonah  re- 
tained his  consciousness,  and  of- 
fered a  prayer  while  in  that  loath- 
some imprisonment.  It  is  also 
stated  that  the  Lord  heard  his 
prayer,  and  that  on  the  third  day 
Jonah  was  cast  by  the  whale  upon 
dry  land.  It  is  still  further  re- 
corded that  Jonah  then  went  to 
Nineveh    and    delivered    his  mes- 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      25 

sage ;  that  the  people  repented, 
that  God  forgave  them,  that  Jonah 
was  greatly  incensed  because  Nin- 
eveh had  escaped  her  predicted 
doom,  but  afterward  in  a  singular 
way  was  taught  a  salutary  lesson 
as  to  God's  great  forbearance,  not 
only  toward  that  penitent  city,  but 
also  toward  all  peoples  who  forsake 
their  iniquities  and  turn  to  him 
for  forgiveness.  In  brief,  such  is 
the  remarkable  story  concerning 
Jonah,  the  prophet  of  Israel. 

Now  at  this  point  the  radical 
sceptic  who,  as  already  suggested, 
nay  be  and  often  is  extremely 
superficial  as  well  as  sceptical, 
without  giving  the  subject  critical 
study,  sums  up  the  case  in  a  single 
dogmatic  sentence,  which  is  this, 
"  I  do  not  believe  one  word  of  this 
story." 


26  STORY  OF  JONAH 

What  shall  be  our  reply  ?  Shall 
it  be  an  equally  dogmatic  sentence, 
or  some  kind  of  clerical  rebuke  ? 
By  no  means,  for  the  modern  scep- 
tic at  such  a  reply  would  laugh  in 
our  faces.  But  rather  in  a  kindly 
manner  we  may  first  suggest  a  cau- 
tion, namely,  that  this  judgment  of 
the  sceptical  critic  is  too  sweeping, 
for  unless  we  are  prepared  to  deny 
the  credibility  of  all  history,  there 
are  some  parts  of  this  story  of 
Jonah,  that  on  the  ground  of  the 
higher  and  the  highest  criticism 
one  cannot  help  believing.  Let 
us,  therefore,  instead  of  passing 
our  judgments  in  such  a  prema- 
ture and  wholesale  way,  adopt  the 
scientific  method  and,  among  these 
alleged  facts,  note  first  those  that 
are  reasonably  credible.    We  shall 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      27 


then  be  in  a  better  position  to 
decide  as  to  the  disposition  to  be 
made  of  such  parts  of  the  narra- 
tive as  are  thought  to  be  incredible 
because  they  are,  or  seem  to  be, 
supernatural. 

In  pursuance  of  this  method  we 
first  apply  our  tests  to  the  leading 
character  in  the  narrative,  Jonah, 
the  son  of  Amittai.  The  question 
at  this  point  reduces  itself  to  this  : 
Was  there  a  man  named  Jonah, 
did  he  live  in  Palestine,  was  he  a 
Hebrew  and  a  prophet  of  the  Lord  ? 

Our  reply  is  that  on  the  grounds 
of  historical  and  geographical  criti- 
cism, and  on  the  grounds  of  the 
most  recent  and  highest  philolog- 
ical and  literary  criticism,  we  are 
led  if  not  forced  to  the  conclusion 
that  Jonah  was  neither  a  symbol- 


STORY  OF  JONAH 


ical  nor  a  mythical,  but  was  an 
historical  character. 

It  was  an  historical  and  a  pro- 
phetical, not  a  mythical,  age  in 
which  he  lived.  He  was  contem- 
poraneous with  such  men  as  Oba- 
diah,  Joel,  Amos,  and  Hosea,  who 
belonged  to  the  last  school  of  Old 
Testament  prophets.  If  Jonah  is 
consigned  to  the  realms  of  the 
mythical,  then  there  is  no  reason 
why  these  other  prophets,  or,  in- 
deed, no  reason  why  the  Greek 
and  Roman  classical  writers  of 
that  same  period,  and  even  those 
who  flourished  somewhat  later, 
should  not  be  consigned  to  those 
same  mythical  realms. 

Indeed,  there  is  not  an  argument 
now  used  in  disproving  the  histor- 
ical character  of  Jonah  that  cannot 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      29 

be  used  against  the  historical  char- 
acter of  those  distinguished  con- 
temporaneous Assyrians,  Shalma- 
neser,  Saracus,  and  Sennacherib, 
and  of  those  early  and  notable 
Greek  characters,  Hesiod,  Lycur- 
gus,  and  Homer,  who  flourished 
about  the  same  date.  One  can' 
present  just  as  strong  reasons  in 
support  of  the  proposition  that 
Virgil  and  even  William  Shake- 
speare were  unhistorical  charac- 
ters, as  that  Jonah,  the  son  of  Amit- 
tai,  was  an  unhistorical  character.  / 

Another  fact  that  higher  criti- 
cism requires  us  to  take  into  con- 
sideration is  this,  that  Jonah's 
name  is  of  Hebrew  origin.  The 
word  nir  signifies  a  dove.  The 
transference  of  the  name  of  some 
object  or  quality  to  a  person  was 


30  STORY  OF  JONAH 

the  usual  method  of  forming  He- 
brew names,  and  appears,  so  far  as 
we  can  discover,  to  have  been  with- 
out exception  the  method  employed 
during  the  lifetime  of  Jonah. 

Amos,  for  instance,  signifies 
"bearer";  Obadiah  signifies  **  ser- 
vant of  Jehovah  "  ;  Joel  signifies 
"Jehovah  is  God";  Micah  signi- 
fies "who  is  like  God?"  Nahum 
signifies  "benevolence";  Haggai 
signifies  "  a  feast "  ;  and  Amittai, 
the  name  of  the  father  of  Jonah, 
signifies,  "stability"  or  "truth  of 
God."  Jonah's  name,  we  repeat, 
was  therefore  of  Hebrew  origin, 
and  was  formed  in  strict  harmony 
with  the  Hebrew  method  of  form- 
ing names  eight  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  the  time  at  which 
this  prophet  received  his  name. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      31 

There  is  an  additional  fact  in 
this  connection  which,  in  the  light 
of  higher  criticism,  must  not  be 
overlooked ;  namely,  that  Jonah  is 
referred  to  as  an  historical  charac- 
ter elsewhere  in  the  Bible,  and  his 
name  is  mentioned  also  in  other 
Jewish  historical  writings.  He  is 
spoken  of  in  2  Kings  14:25; 
Matt.  12  :  39,  40  ;  Luke  1 1  :  29-32  ; 
in  Tobit,  4-iv,  15;  and  in  the 
writings  of  Josephus,  Ant.,  Chap. 
IX,   10,  Sect.  2. 

Such  is  the  proof,  in  the  light 
of  higher  criticism,  that  Jonah 
was  neither  a  symbolical  nor  a 
mythical,  but  was  an  historical 
character. 

Turning  attention  next  to  the 
book  which  bears  the  name  of 
Jonah,  we  are  confronted  by  several 


32  STORY  OF  JONAH 

important  facts,  three  of  which 
deserve  special  mention. 

First,  this  book  employs  almost 
identically  the  same  form  of  intro- 
duction that  is  used  in  the  other 
prophecies  of  about  the  same 
period.  Note  the  following  :  "  The 
word  of  the  Lord  that  came  unto 
Hosea,  the  son  of  Beeri"  (Hosea 
i:i);  "The  word  of  God  that 
came  to  Joel,  the  son  of  Pethuel " 
(Joel  I  :  i) ;  ''The  word  of  the 
Lord  that  came  to  Micah  the 
Morasthite  "  (Micah  i  :  i) ;  "The 
word  of  the  Lord  which  came 
unto  Zephaniah  the  son  of  Cushi " 
(Zeph.  I  :  i).  Turning  to  the  book 
of  Jonah  we  read,  "The  word  of 
the  Lord  came  unto  Jonah  the  son 
of  Amittai"  (Jonah  i  :  i). 

In  view   of   these   introductory 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      33 

words,  what  can  be  said,  on  the 
grounds  of  higher  criticism,  if  not 
this,  that  either  the  writer  or  the 
editor  of  the  book  of  Jonah  in- 
tended to  deceive  his  readers,  or 
else  to  give  the  book  the  same  rank 
and  authority  as  belong  to  those 
books  with  which  it  has  been 
compiled  ? 

The  second  fact  bearing  upon 
the  point  before  us  is  this:  that  a 
belief  in  the  historical  integrity 
of  the  book  of  Jonah  universally 
and  continuously  prevailed  in  the 
Jewish  synagogue,  and  was  the 
belief  entertained  by  the  Christian 
Church  during  all  the  early  years 
of  its  history.  Everybody  who  has 
studied  the  subject  knows  that  the 
primitive  Christians,  in  their  paint- 
ings  and    frescoes,    showed  their 


34  STORY  OF  JONAH 

unwavering  belief  in  the  story  of 
Jonah. 

Archdeacon  Farrar,  in  speaking 
of  those  paintings,  says  :  "  I  found 
three  favorite  subjects  from  the 
Old  Testament  :  i.  The  three 
men  in  the  fiery  furnace  ;  2.  Dan- 
iel in  the  lions'  den  ;  3.  The 
story  of  Jonah.  The  Christian 
felt  special  delight  in  the  story  of 
Jonah.  The  fish  they  always  repre- 
sented not  as  a  fish,  but  as  a  long, 
thin-necked  monster  of  the  deep." 

And  as  every  student  of  eccle- 
siastical history  knows,  the  story  of 
Jonah  was  not  called  in  question  in 
the  Christian  Church  until  the 
middle  of  the  last  century,  and 
many  of  the  methods  of  criticism 
then  employed  to  rule  this  book 
out  of  the  sacred  canon  are  at  the 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      35 

present  time    held    in  almost  uni- 
versal disrespect. 

The  third  fact  bearing  upon  this  ^ 
point  is,  that  the  compilers  of  the 
Old  Testament,  who  were  the  last 
of  the  Old  Testament  prophets, 
and  whose  sources  of  information 
were,  perhaps,  as  numerous,  at 
least,  whose  common  sense  and 
judgment  were  quite  as  reliable  as 
those  of  our  modern  critics,  were 
men  of  such  courage  and  integ- 
rity that  they  would  have  suffered 
martyrdom  sooner  than  introduce 
among  the  prophetical  writings  the 
narrative  of  Jonah  as  history  and 
prophecy,  if  they  had  thought  it 
to  be  only  a  piece  of  mythical 
writing. 

In  passing  we  must  not  fail  to 
call   attention  to   another  fact   in 


36  STORY   OF  JONAH 

the  internal  construction  of  this 
book  ;  namely,  if  the  story  of  Jonah 
is  a  parable  it  is  strikingly  excep- 
tional, for  it  is  the  only  parable  in 
the  whole  Bible  that  has  such  in- 
congruity as  to  excite  amusement. 

Such  a  peculiarity  as  this  should 
on  no  account  escape  the  attention 
of  those  who  pretend  to  be  working 
in  the  realms  of  higher  criticism.^ 

And  we  may  add  that  every 
parable  of  the  New  Testament,  as 
one  of  our  latest  critics  himself 
assures  us,  is  such  as  might  have 


1  A  study  of  the  parables  of  the  Old  Testament  will 
confirm  what  we  are  saying.  The  following  are  the 
ones  usually  enumerated:  — 

Jotham's  parable  of  the  trees,  Judges  9:  7-15. 

Nathan's  parable  of  the  ewe-lamb,  2  Sam.  12;  1-14. 

Jehoash's  parable  of  the  thistle  and  cedar,  2  Kings 
14:  9. 

Isaiah's  parable  of  the  vineyard,  Is.  5  :  1-5. 

Ezekiel's  parable  of  the  lions'  whelps,  Ez.  iq:  1-9. 

Solomon's  parable  of  the  poor  wise  man,  Eccl.  9: 
13-15- 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      37 

been  a  fact  or  have  been  based  on 
facts. 

But  more  than  this,  the  integrity 
of  the  book  of  Jonah  will  bear  the 
most  critical  inspection.  In  the 
judgment  of  our  ablest  scholars 
the  philological,  historical,  and  geo- 
graphical statements  of  this  book 
of  Jonah,  together  with  its  unity, 
its  striking  idioms,  and  the  use  of 
certain  peculiar  words,  such  as 
ni^SD.  sehpheenah,  Jon.  1:5,  "a 
decked  vessel  "  ;  b^nn  D"),  ravhach- 
oevel,  Jon.  i  :  6  {comp.  Ez.  27  : 8), 
"chief  of  the  sailors,"  and  ar^D. 
taam,  Jon.  3  :  7  {comp.  Ezra  6: 14), 
"decree,"  are  data  of  supreme  im- 
portance, and  were  so  convincing 
as  to  have  led  even  Paulus,  one  of 
the  most  destructive  of  the  German 
critics,     unhesitatingly   to  ascribe 


38  STORY  OF  JONAH 

the  language  of  this  book  to  the 
times  of  Jonah,  the  son  of  Amittai. 
Now  if  there  is  any  higher  type 
of  criticism,  or  a  method  any  more 
scientific  that  can  be  used  in  place 
of  these  we  have  employed  in  es- 
tablishing the  historical  character 
of  Jonah  and  the  historical  integ- 
rity of  the  book  bearing  his  name, 
we  confess  that  after  many  years 
of  investigation  we  do  not  know 
what  they  are  or  where  they  can 
be  found.  And  we  challenge  the 
sceptic  and  the  critic  of  whatever 
school  to  point  out  a  single  defect 
in  the  reasoning  we  thus  far  have 
employed,  or  any  irrelevancy  in 
the  facts  presented. 
^  We  next  call  the  attention  of 
the  reader  to  a  few  facts  concern- 
ing the  city  of  Nineveh. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      39 

As  late  as  sixty  years  ago  the 
literary  and  higher  critics  of  that 
day  did  not  hesitate  to  assert  that 
there  never  was  such  a  city  as 
Nineveh  is  represented  to  have 
been.  Some  of  those  men  declared, 
therefore,  that  Nineveh  as  well  as 
Jonah  was  nothing  but  a  myth. 

And  it  must  be  confessed  that 
from  the  dawn  of  the  Christian 
era  down  to  fewer  than  sixty  years 
ago  there  were  many  reasons  on 
which  to  base  such  assertions,  and 
the  friends  of  the  Bible  were  some- 
times perplexed  when  attempting 
to  make  a  reply.  Here  was  the 
difficulty ;  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury Alexander  fought  his  great 
battle  of  Arbela,  near  the  site  of 
Nineveh,  yet  neither  his  histo- 
rians nor  his  geographers,  though 


*\ 


y 


40  STORY   OF  JONAH 

describing  many  other  events  and 
places,  in  any  way  allude  to  the 
remains  of  a  great  city,  nor  do  they 
even  mention  the  name  of  Nine- 
veh. This  fact,  at  first  thought,  is 
remarkable,  and  seemingly  justi- 
fied the  sceptic  in  doubting  that 
such  a  city  had  ever  existed. 

Strabo,  Diodorus  Siculus,  Ptol- 
emy, and  other  writers  of  the  early 
centuries,  though  traversing  that 
territory  again  and  again,  said  noth- 
ing and  knew  nothing  of  the  site 
of  that  ancient  city.  The  most 
they  did  was  to  speak  of  certain 
traditions  concerning  an  ancient 
and  celebrated  city,  the  capital  of 
the  Assyrian  Empire.  Of  its  site 
or  of  its  history  they  had  nothing 
whatever  to  say.  And  we  repeat 
\     that    until  within  less   than    sixty 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      41 

years  the  story  of  the  greatness 
and  glory  of  Nineveh  was  there- 
fore discredited  for  lack  of  evi- 
dence. The  higher  critics  decided 
that  if  there  had  been  such  a  city 
this  utter  silence  of  all  ancient 
geographers,  historians,  and  travel- 
ers would  be  absolutely  unaccount- 
able. It  is  not  surprising,  there- 
fore, when  Nineveh  in  this  book  of 
Jonah  was  described  as  an  exceed- 
ing great  city,  of  three  days'  jour- 
ney, containing  more  than  six- 
score  thousand  persons  who  could 
not  discern  between  their  right 
hand  and  their  left,  that  scepticism 
and  higher  criticism  united  in  say- 
ing that  these  accounts  bear  upon 
their  very  face  the  evidence  of  false- 
hood. They  said  that  these  Bible 
writers  viewed  things  in  the  light 


42  STORY  OF  JONAH 

of  **  their  own  puny  ideas  of  mag- 
nificence." And  there,  for  a  time, 
ended  the  argument. 

But  in  1 841,  underneath  the 
accumulations  of  centuries,  Nine- 
veh was  discovered,  then  un- 
covered, and  was  found  to  have 
had  just  such  extent  and  mag- 
nificence as  are  recorded  in  this 
book  of  the  prophecy  of  Jonah. 

The  excavations  made  by  M. 
Botta,  Layard,  Rassam,  Loftus, 
and  George  Smith  have  enabled 
us  to  trace  the  walls  built  by 
Sennacherib,  and  repaired  by  As- 
surbanipal,  and  to  mark  the  site 
of  the  palaces  of  Shalmaneser 
and  of  the  temple  of  Nebo.  These 
explorers  and  others  of  later  date 
have  exhumed  the  monuments  of 
Nineveh  ;  her  colossal  sculptures, 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      43 

her  numberless  cylinders  and  seals, 
her  slabs  of  gray  alabaster  sculp- 
tured in  bas-relief  and  inscribed 
with  beautiful  arrowheaded  char- 
acters, are  now  familiar  objects, 
some  of  which  have  been  trans- 
ported to  almost  every  noted  mu- 
seum of  the  world.  And,  perhaps, 
no  one  need  be  told  that  upon 
these  slabs  are  inscriptions  of 
great  interest  to  Bible  students 
which  in  some  instances  have  com- 
pletely upset  the  views  held  by 
the  higher  critics  during  the  first 
half  of  the  present  century.  They 
contain  references  to  Hiram,  king 
of  Tyre,  who  flourished  about  two 
hundred  years  before  Jonah ;  and 
references  to  Jehu,  son  of  Omri, 
and  to  Benhadad,  king  of  Damas- 
cus, both  of  whom  flourished  about 


44  STORY  OF  JONAH 

one  hundred  years  before  Jonah ; 
and  there  are  references  to  Heze- 
kiah,  who  was  king  of  Judah  about 
one  hundred  years  after  Jonah. 

There  can  now  be  read  on  those 
slabs  accounts  of  Assyrian  inva- 
sions in  all  directions.  There  is 
a  record  of  an  invasion  of  Judaea, 
and  of  the  siege  of  Lachish,  but 
a  suggestive  silence  as  to  the  re- 
sults of  that  Judsean  campaign. 
One  of  the  inscriptions  of  the  siege 
of  Lachish,  as  interpreted  by  Lay- 
ard,  reads  thus  :  "  Sennacherib,  the 
mighty  king,  king  of  the  country 
of  Assyria,  sitting  on  the  throne  of 
judgment  before  the  city  of  Lachish, 
I  give  permission  for  its  slaughter." 
But  it  was  not  destroyed.^ 

Speaking   in   general    of    these 

^  Comp.  2  Chron.  xxxii;  2  Kings  xix;  Jer.  xxxiv. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      45 

discoveries,  Layard  declares  that 
the  Assyrian  records  are  nothing 
but  a  register  of  military  cam- 
paigns, spoliations,  and  cruelties.^ 

Recent  explorers,  among  whom 
are  M.  de  Sarzac,  Lockyer,  Tomp- 
kins, and  Professor  R.  W.  Rogers, 
have  made  similar  discoveries,  but 
in  addition  also  find  overwhelming 
evidence  of  a  very  high  state  of 
civilization,  as  well  as  of  gross 
wickedness. 

And  if  further  excavations  should 
disclose  the  fact  that,  during  the 
reign  of  one  of  the  later  Assyrian 
kings,  a  prophet  of  Israel  pre- 
dicted the  doom  of  Nineveh,  but 
that  the  doom  was  averted  by  the 
God  of  the  Jews,  it  would  be  no 
more    singular    than     discoveries 

^  Comp.  Nahum  2:  12;  3:  i,  19. 


46  STORY  OF  JONAH 

already  made.  At  all  events  there 
is  now  no  denying  the  facts  that 
there  was  an  immense  city  on  the 
shores  of  the  Tigris ;  that  it  was 
almost  without  an  equal  in  wealth, 
power,  and  luxury;  that  it  was 
notorious  for  its  sensuality,  vio- 
lence, and  cruelty ;  that  it  was 
flourishing  in  the  time  of  Heze- 
kiah,  king  of  Judah,  in  the  time 
of  Benhadad,  king  of  Damascus, 
in  the  time  of  Hiram,  king  of 
Tyre,  and  that  it  was  enjoying  a 
very  high  degree  of  prosperity  and 
achieving  military  conquests  over 
all  the  neighboring  nations  in  the 
time  of  Jonah,  the  son  of  Amittai. 
In  order  to  bring  out  a  thought 
that  will  be  of  service  further  on 
in  the  discussion,  we  pause  at  this 
point  for  a  moment  to  answer  a 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      47 

question  which  one  naturally  asks ; 
namely,  How  was  it  that  histo- 
rians, during  the  first  and  fourth 
centuries,  said  so  little  of  Nineveh, 
and  made  no  mention  whatever  of 
any  visible  evidence  of  its  exist- 
ence ?  The  answer  is,  that  at  that 
time  there  were  no  visible  evi- 
dences. The  facts  are  these : 
Nineveh,  founded  by  Nimrod,  a 
great-grandson  of  Noah,^  fifteen 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  be- 
came, during  the  reign  of  Sen- 
nacherib, the  capital  of  the  Assyr- 
ian Empire.  It  was  in  its  greatest 
glory  when  Jonah  (800  b.c.)  proph- 
esied against  it.  It  was  standing 
several  years  later,  when  Nahum 
uttered  his  prediction  against  it. 
It  was  besieged  for  two  years  by 

iGen.  10:  u. 


48  STORY  OF  JONAH 

''^  the  combined  forces  of  the  Medes 
and  Babylonians,  and  by  them  was 
captured,  606  e.g.,  which  was  two 
hundred  years  after  the  prophecy 
of  Jonah.  Excavations  show  that 
it  was  then  completely  devastated 
by  conflagrations,  which  destroyed 
everything  except  its  stone  and 
brick.  Its  walls  were  thrown 
down  ;  and,  according  to  prophecy, 
it  was  made  forever  uninhabit- 
able.^ Immediately  after  its  over- 
throw it  began  to  fall  into  its  pro- 
phetic grave. 

Four  hundred  years  after  the 
time  of  Jonah,  Herodotus  passed 
over  the  site  of  Nineveh,  but  men- 
tions no  visible  ruins.  Xenophon, 
about  the  same  date,  likewise  trav- 
ersed and  re-traversed  the  shores 

iNah.  3:  1-7;  Zeph.  2:  13-15. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      49 

of  the  Tigris,  but  alludes   to   no\ 
remains  of  a  great  historic  city. 

Thus  Nineveh,  flourishing  in  the 
time  of  Jonah,  captured  within  two 
hundred  years  after  Jonah,  buried 
out  of  sight  within  four  hundred 
years  after  Jonah,  remained  in  its 
grave  for  nearly  twenty-five  hun- 
dred years.  It  was  in  1841,  when 
Botta,  and  a  little  later  Layard, 
began  their  excavations. 

Hence  our  radical  sceptic  who 
in  his  haste  said,  I  do  not  believe 
one  word  of  this  story  of  Jonah, 
must  qualify  his  statement,  for  he 
is  now  compelled  to  admit  the  fol- 
lowing facts  ;  namely,  there  was 
such  a  man  as  Jonah  ;  he  was  a 
recognized  prophet  of  Israel;  he 
flourished  about  eight  hundred 
years  before   Christ,  and   at   that 


50  STORY  OF  JONAH 

time  Nineveh,  a  great,  gay,  proud, 
and  wicked  city,  the  capital  of 
the  Assyrian  Empire,  was  in  her 
supremacy.  These  facts,  once  de- 
nied, are  now  undeniable  and  fur- 
nish a  sort  of  indisputable  his- 
toric foothold  on  which  one  can 
stand  and  study  all  the  correlated 
incidents  of  this  remarkable  nar- 
rative. 

But  let  us  enumerate  certain 
other  matters  in  the  story  of 
Jonah  that  no  intelligent  and 
reasonable  sceptic,  who  is  famil- 
iar with  what  is  termed  higher 
criticism,  will  venture  to  deny. 

For  instance,  he  will  not  deny 
that  it  is  entirely  credible  that 
Jonah  was  sent  to  Nineveh  to  de- 
nounce her  iniquity  and  make 
known  to  her  people  the  God  of 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      51 

Israel.  Such  missions  were  an 
important  part  of  the  prophet 
office  and  service.^  On  a  similar 
mission  Joseph  and  Moses  were 
sent  to  Pharaoh  and  the  Egyp- 
tians. On  a  similar  mission  Elisha 
was  sent  to  the  king  and  people 
of  Syria.  On  a  similar  mission 
Daniel  was  sent  to  four  of  the 
greatest  monarchs  of  the  world, 
Nebuchadnezzar,  Belshazzar,  Cy- 
rus, and  Darius. 

And  more  than  this,  it  is  entirely 
credible,  as  any  critic  must  allow, 
that  Jonah  should  have  hesitated 
to  go  to  Nineveh,  There  were 
many  reasons  for  such  hesitation. 
In  common  with  all  Israelites  he 
looked  upon  the  inhabitants  of 
that  city  with  disdain,  if  not  with    f 

1  2  Kings  i8: 13;  Jer.  25:  4;  5: 59-64. 


52  STORY  OF  JONAH 

^  revulsion.  He  desired  to  have  no 
associations  with  that  heathenish 
and  wicked  though  civilized  people. 
It  is  more  than  likely,  too,  that  he 
had  forebodings  that  his  mission 
would  be  attended  with  disappoint- 
ment, and  also  he  may  have  feared 
personal  injury.  If  his  name  in- 
dicates anything  concerning  his 
character,  he  had  the  gentleness 
and  timidity  of  a  dove  rather  than 
the  strength  and  heroism  of  a 
lion  ;  he  was  a  Melanchthon  rather 
than  a  Luther.  There  is  nothing 
incredible,  therefore,  in  his  at- 
tempted abandonment  of  this  to 
him  extremely  distasteful  mission. 
Indeed  such  unfaithfulness  is  by  no 
means  uncharacteristic  of  human 
nature.      Jonah    represents   many 

,      servants   of    God   who    have   left 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      53 

undone  what  ought  to  have  been 
done.  Men  called  to  the  ministry 
frequently  have  rebelled,  not  com- 
plying with  their  convictions  until 
repeated  reverses  in  other  under- 
takings have  driven  them  into  the 
path  of  obedience. 

And  it  is  credible,  too,  that 
Jonah  after  having  abandoned  his 
mission  fled  to  Joppa  and  found 
there  a  ship  which  was  about  to 
sail  to  Tarshish.  Joppa,  the  mod- 
ern Jaffa,  was  at  that  time  a  well- 
known  seaport  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, between  which  and  other 
trading  places  commerce  had  been 
carried  on  almost  from  the  dawn 
of  history. 

And  in  taking  this  sea  voyage 
there  is  nothing  incredible  ;  Jonah 
did  simply  what  many  other  runa- 


V 


54  STORY  OF  JONAH 

-^  way  men,  after  committing  some 
sin  or  crime,  have  done. 

The  statement,  too,  that  Jonah 
paid  his  fare  is  not  only  one  of 
those  incidental  turns  in  the  nar- 
rative that  support  the  view  that 
the  story  is  history  and  not  fiction, 
but  it  shows  also  that  Jonah  was 
no  defaulter,  stowaway,  or  tramp, 
but  was  a  man  who  intended  to 
pay  his  honest  debts,  though  flee- 
ing from  the  performance  of  his 
religious  duty. 

Nor  is  there  anything  incredible 
in  the  statement  that,  after  going 
on  board  the  ship,  Jonah  went  be- 
low deck ;  and  having  been  in  in- 
tense excitement  for  days,  perhaps 
for  weeks,  and  being  physically 
and  mentally  exhausted,  there  is 
nothing   incredible    in    the    addi- 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      55 

tional  statement  that  he  fell  fast 
asleep.  Men  can  sin,  indeed  they 
can  commit  appalling  crimes  and 
then  sleep  as  if  nothing  had  hap- 
pened ;  they  sleep,  though  they  are 
to  be  hanged  the  next  day. 

Nor  is  there  anything  incredible 
in  the  statement  that  a  severe 
storm  arose.  One  might  as  well 
question  the  account  of  Paul's 
rough  experience  and  shipwreck 
on  this  same  sea,  and  perhaps  not 
far  from  the  scene  of  the  storm 
that  overtook  this  ship  from 
Joppa,  as  to  call  in  question  the 
story  before  us.^ 

And  that  the  sailors  prayed  and 
bound  themselves  by  oaths  to  do 
and  be  better  in  the  future  if  they 
were   spared  this  time,  is  not  in- 

^  Acts  xxvii  and  xxviii. 


56  STORY  OF  JONAH 

credible,  at  least  in  the  judgment 
of  any  one  who  is  at  all  familiar 
with  men  engaged  in  a  seafaring 
life.  It  is  notorious  that  sailors 
swear  and  pray,  and  pray  and  swear 
the  same  minute. 

Nor  is  there  anything  incredible 
in  the  statement  that  the  ship's 
crew,  when  nothing  else  availed, 
cast  the  unfaithful  prophet  over- 
board ;  for,  in  the  time  of  Jonah 
and  in  the  countries  bordering  on 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  on 
the  islands  of  that  sea,  as  the 
higher  critics  have  or  should  have 
learned,  it  was  no  uncommon 
thing  to  appease  the  gods  by  offer- 
ing human  sacrifices.^  And  if  ever 
such  sacrifices  were  called  for,  it 

1  Eurip.,  Electr.,  v.  1354;  Theophr.,  Charact.,  29; 
Cic,  De  Nat.  Deor.,  i,  iii.  c.  37;  Orph.,  Argon.,  v. 
X178;  Hdt.,  i.  vil.  c.  191;  Strab.,  i.  xiii.  c.  2. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      57 

would  seem  to  be  in  the  present 
instance.  Jonah  already  had  told 
those  on  board  that  he  was  the 
cause  of  their  trouble. 

Hence,  after  this  confession, 
the  bowlings  of  the  tempest,  which 
every  moment  increased  and  threat- 
ened to  wreck  them,  and  the  lot 
that  had  fallen  upon  Jonah,  were 
to  that  ship's  company  as  the  voice 
of  God.  There  was  but  one  thing 
to  do,  as  they  thought,  and  that 
was  to  cast  the  disobedient  and 
guilty  prophet  into  the  sea. 

And  that  Jonah  was  willing,  or  at 
least  that  he  consented,  to  be  thrown 
overboard  is  not  so  very  strange 
when  we  take  into  account  his 
troubled  conscience  and  his  nausea. 

He  was  from  the  inland  among 
the  hills  of  Gath-hepher,  was  con- 


58  STORY  OF  JONAH 

sequently  unaccustomed  to  sea 
voyages,  and  in  that  storm  probably 
was  deathly  sick.  More  than  one 
man  when  in  like  condition,  sinful 
and  sick,  has  felt  that  to  go  over- 
board into  the  boiling  sea  would 
be  a  relief. 

Nor  is  there  anything  incredible 
in  what  is  said  to  have  followed; 
namely,  that  a  great  fish  (di,  dahg) 
was  near  the  ship,  and  seized 
Jonah  the  moment  he  struck  the 
water.  Every  seafaring  man 
knows  that  at  sea  sharks  follow 
ships  for  days,  sometimes  for 
weeks ;  and  if  an  unfortunate 
man  falls  overboard,  he  is  often 
instantly  seized  and  devoured. 

We  need  not  extend  the  enumer- 
ation of  these  incidents  further. 
But   bringing   all    the    scenes    of 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      59 

this  storm  under  the  light  of  liter- 
ary and  higher  criticism,  noting 
the  behavior  and  peril  of  the  ship, 
the  terror  of  those  on  board,  the 
praying  and  oaths  of  the  sailors,  the 
throwing  overboard  of  the  cargo, 
the  casting  of  lots,  the  confession 
of  Jonah,  the  efforts  of  the  kind- 
hearted  sailors  to  spare  the  unfor- 
tunate prophet,  we  shall  find  that 
they  are  full  of  lifelikeness ;  and 
the  point  we  make  and  the  one 
that  is  vital  in  the  discussion  is 
this,  that  such  lifelikeness,  were 
it  not  based  on  facts,  would  be,  on 
the  grounds  of  the  highest  criti- 
cism, unaccountable  if  not  impos- 
sible in  an  age  and  among  a  people 
where  fiction  had  not  been  culti- 
vated as  an  art. 

The  literary  remains  of  that  age, 


60  STORY  OF  JONAH 

as  every  scholar  ought  to  know, 
are  historic,  not  mythical.  Orien- 
tal and  Grecian  fiction  was  a  sub- 
sequent development  from  five  to 
eight  hundred  years  later.  And 
unless  the  whole  Bible  is  fiction 
and  myth,  this  story  of  Jonah 
stands  out  conspicuously  as  an 
exception  in  the  entire  range  of 
ancient  Jewish  rhetorical  composi- 
tion ;  and  the  higher,  at  least  the 
highest,  criticism  cannot  allow  any 
such  disposition  of  this  book  of 
Jonah  to  be  made. 

In  view,  therefore,  of  all  the 
considerations  presented,  we  appeal 
to  any  candid  person  if  the  vari- 
ous and  numerous  coincidences, 
the  incidental  and  circumstantial 
confirmations  are  not  such  as  to 
place  the  parts  of  this  story,  which 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.      61 

we  have  thus  far  considered,  with- 
in the  realms  of  indisputable  his- 
tory, and  up  to  this  point  absolutely 
preclude  the  theory  of  fiction  or  of 
myth.  A  critical  and  scholarly 
mind,  giving  attention  to  these 
items,  must  inevitably  concede 
that  no  other  ancient  writing  has 
internal  and  external  proof  of 
the  credibility  of  the  facts  pre- 
sented, which  is  more  convincing 
than  is  adduced  in  support  of  the 
non-miraculous  parts  of  the  story 
we  have  been   considering. 

In  a  word  these  portions  of  the 
narrative  already  before  us  are  as 
impregnable  as  any  of  the  Alps  of 
ancient  history.  They  are  not, 
therefore,  the  things  that  we  thus 
far  have  enumerated,  but  they  are 
the  remaining  parts  of  the  story, 


62  STORY  OF  JONAH 

which,  crossing  the  line  of  the 
miraculous,  and  becoming  super- 
natural, are  in  the  judgment  of 
very  many  people  held  to  be  al- 
together untrustworthy.  Indeed, 
many  friends  of  the  Bible  heartily 
have  wished  that  Jonah's  life  had 
ended  when  the  waves  of  the  sea 
engulfed  him,  and  thus  have  saved 
the  theological  world  considerable 
trouble.  Had  this  been  the  case 
there  is  no  likelihood  that  the 
historical  integrity  of  this  book  of 
Jonah  ever  would  have  been  called 
in  question. 

Among  the  statements  in  the 
story  that  are  pronounced  incredi- 
ble, and  that  seem  on  the  surface 
to  be  such,  which  we  must  next 
consider,  are  first  that  God,  as  it  is 
said,  '*  would  not  go  into  the  busi- 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.       63 

ness  of  creating  whales  to  swallow   "^ 
men." 

The  higher  critic,  however, 
should  have  learned  before  this 
date  that  it  is  somewhat  hazardous 
to  say  what  God  will  or  will  not 
condescend  to  do.  His  ways  are 
often  quite  incomprehensible. 

But  let  us,  before  hastily  reach- 
ing our  conclusions,  follow  the 
principles  of  higher  criticism  for  a 
moment  and  note  the  results.  In 
doing  this  we  discover  that  the 
Hebrew  words,  well  translated  in 
the  Common  Version, ''  prepared  a 
great  fish,"  do  not  mean  that  God 
created  a  fish  for  the  specific  pur- 
pose of  swallowing  Jonah,  but 
literally  mean  that  God  (n:j?D)  al- 
lotted or  appointed  a  great  fish  to 
swallow   Jonah ;  or,    in    Christian     / 


\ 


64  STORY  OF  JONAH 

speech,  the  meaning  is  that,  by  the 
providences  of  God,  a  great  fish 
was  brought  to  the  side  of  the 
ship  at  the  precise  moment  Jonah 
was  thrown  overboard,  and  under 
the  circumstances  did  what  was 
perfectly  natural  for  a  great  fish  to 
do,  swallowed  Jonah.  It  well-nigh 
would  have  been  a  miracle  if  under 
the  circumstances  the  fish  had  not 
swallowed  him. 

And  that  this  whole  transaction 
could  have  been  providential  is  no 
more  singular  than  that  God  should 
note  the  fall  of  a  sparrow  and  num- 
ber the  hair  of  the  head. 

But  another  thing  that  some  of 
the  higher  critics  of  a  few  years  ago 
discovered  and  published  to  the 
world  is  that  the  throat  of  a  whale 
is  not  large  enough  to  swallow  a 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      65 

man  without  mutilating  him  be- 
yond recognition.  This  criticism 
on  the  story  of  Jonah,  as  every 
one  knows,  has  been  paraded  by 
sceptics  and  critics  until  it  is 
threadbare. 

Let  us,  however,  bring  to  our  aid 
the  light  of  philological  science 
for  a  moment  and  take  under  con- 
sideration certain  facts  that  are 
indisputable,  before  reaching  final 
conclusions. 

The  word  d"i,  dahg,  translated 
into  both  the  Septuagint  and  the 
New  Testament  by  the  Greek 
word  xriro<^^  katoSy  and  into  the 
Latin  of  the  Vulgate  by  the  words 
piscem  gra7ide'my  means  simply  a 
great  fish  or  sea-monster. 

The  word  "whale,"  therefore,  is 
the   translator's   word,    while    thq 


66  STORY  OF  JONAH 

words  dahg  and  katos  are  the  words 
used  by  the  Bible  writers.^ 

So  far,  therefore,  as  the  Hebrew 
and  the  Greek  words  are  con- 
cerned, the  fish  may  have  been  a 
whale,  a  shark,  a  sea  serpent,  a 
sea  lion,  or  any  other  large  monster 
of  the  deep. 

But  even  if  the  critic,  though 
without  sense  or  reason,  should  in- 
sist that  in  this  discussion  we  must 
use  the  word  ''whale,"  still  the 
Bible  student  at  the  present  time 
would  be  in  no  embarrassment,  for 
while  the  "  right  whale "  has  a 
throat  of  small  size,  yet  the  throat 

^  In  confirmation  of  what  we  are  saying  see  the  book 
of  Jonah  (Matt.  12:39-41;  comp.  Matt.  16:4;  Luke 
11:29-32).  See  also  the  use  of  the  word  katos  by 
Homer,  Od.,  12:37;  ^nd  by  Aristotle,  Hist.  Anim.,  HI, 
20;  I,  II,  258.  This  word,  as  used  by  classical  writers, 
refers  quite  .specially  to  a  cetacean  of  which  different 
specimens,  the  porpoise,  dolphin,  and  sperm  whale,  are 
yet  found  in  the  Mediterranean. 


X 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.       67 

of  the  sperm  whale  is  sufficiently 
large  to  swallow  a  man  without  any 
difficulty  whatever.  There  is  not 
a  shipmaster,  or  an  officer,  or  an 
experienced  sailor  who  has  been 
on  a  whaling  voyage  who  will 
question  the  following  statement 
recently  made  by  one  of  the  crew 
of  a  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  whale 
ship :  that  he,  though  a  man  of 
large  build,  weighing  one  hundred 
and  seventy  pounds,  frequently 
has  passed  through  the  mouth  and 
throat  of  a  dead  sperm  whale. 

He  says  he  did  this  after  the 
head  of  the  whale  had  been  cut 
from  the  body,  and  when  the  jaws 
and  smallest  part  of  the  throat  had 
been  taken  on  deck.  This  dis- 
position of  the  head  is  usually 
made    in   order  to    secure,    with- 


STORY  OF  JONAH 


out  loss,  the  spermaceti,  which 
is  very  valuable  and  confined  to 
the  head. 

The  whaleman  who  made  the 
above  statement,  after  speaking  of 
a  large  whale  captured  off  the  coast 
of  Borneo  which  came  near  swal- 
lowing him,  says  :  — 

'*  When  we  killed  other  whales,  from 
time  to  time,  some  of  the  men  lifted  up 
the  lower  jaws,  while  the  rest,  one  after 
another,  would  crawl  through  the  throat, 
not  down  where  Jonah  went,  but  to  the 
deck."  Then  he  adds:  "Although  a  sperm 
whale  is  large,  the  bowhead  whale  is  much 
larger,  with  a  throat  not  only  capable  of 
swallowing  a  well-built  man,  but  in  my 
judgment  a  good-sized  horse  or  cow." 

M.  P.  Courbet,  in  the  Cosmos 
(Paris),  March  7,  1895,  writing  con- 
cerning  the    scientific    expedition 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM. 


\ 


of  the  Prince  of  Monac^,  after 
giving  an  account  of  a  monster 
sperm  whale  captured  near  the 
Azores,  says,  ''  The  discoveries  of 
the  Prince  of  Monacd^  were  such 
as  to  relieve  us  of  all  difficulty  in 
believing  the  Bible  story  that  a 
whale  could  swallow  Jonah." 

In  an  article  contributed  to  the 
Academy  of  Sciences^  M.  Joubin 
states  that  "  a  sperm  whale  easily 
can  swallow  animals  taller  and 
heavier  than  a  man  ;  "  *'  these  ani- 
mals," he  says,  ''when  swallowed 
can  keep  alive  for  some  time  in 
the  cetacean  s  stomach  and  be 
cast  up  by  it  at  the  moment  of 
its  death."  1 


1  While  the  following  account  is  not  really  essential 
to  the  argument,  still  we  call  the  attention  of  the  reader 
to  it  in  this  footnote  especially  because  the  principles 
of  higher  criticism  will  not  allow  us  to  pass   it  by 


70  STORY  OF  JONAH 

The  fact  that  both  the  sperm  and 
bowhead  whales  easily  can  swallow 
a  man  without  in  the  least  muti- 
lating him  no  longer  can  be  ques- 
tioned. 

On  philological  grounds,  how- 
ever, the  weight  of  evidence  seems 
to  be  that  it  was  neither  a  sperm 
nor  a  bowhead  whale  that  swal- 
lowed Jonah,  but  another  kind  of 


unnoticed.  It  recently  appeared  in  so  respectable  a 
publication  as  the  Literary  Digest  :  — 

"In  the  month  of  February,  1891,  the  whaler  Star 
of  the  East  .  .  .  launched  two  whaleboats  with  an 
equipment  of  men  to  pursue  a  superb  whale  that  was 
observed  at  some  distance.  The  huge  creature  was 
harpooned  and  wounded  to  the  death.  While  it  was 
writhing  in  its  last  agonies  one  of  the  whaleboats  was 
struck  by  its  tail  and  shattered  in  pieces.  The  sailors 
who  were  in  it  were  thrown  into  the  water;  all  but  two 
were  saved  shortly  afterward  by  the  other  boats.  The 
fcody  of  one  was  recovered,  but  the  other  —  a  man 
aamed  James  Hartley  —  could  not  be  found. 

"  When  the  monster  had  ceased  moving  and  its  death 
was  quite  certain,  it  was  hoisted  alongside  the  ship  and 
the  work  of  cutting  it  up  began.  A  day  and  a  night 
were  devoted  to  this  task.  When  it  was  ended  the 
stomach  of  the  whale  was  opened.    What  was  the  sur- 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      71 

sea-monster.  And  it  is  a  well- 
known  fact,  with  which  our  higher 
critics  doubtless  are  familiar,  that 
the  waters  through  which  a  vessel 
in  sailing  from  Joppa  to  any  Span- 
ish port  would  pass  were  fre- 
quented in  early  times,  and  also  in 
later  times,  by  a  species  of  shark 
called  the  sea  dog,  canis  carcharias^ 
whose  normal  length  at  maturity, 


prise  of  the  whalemen  to  find  in  it  their  lost  comrade, 
James  Bartley,  unconscious,  but  alive! 

"  They  had  much  trouble  in  reviving  him.  For 
several  days  he  was  delirious  and  could  not  speak  an 
intelligent  word.  Not  till  three  weeks  had  elapsed  did 
he  recover  his  reason  sufficiently  to  narrate  his  im- 
pressions. 

"  *  I  remember  very  well,'  said  he,  '  the  moment  when 
the  whale  threw  me  into  the  air.  Then  I  was  swal- 
lowed and  found  myself  inclosed  in  a  firm,  slippery 
channel  whose  contractions  forced  me  continually 
downward.  This  lasted  only  an  instant.  Then  I 
found  myself  in  a  large  sac,  and  by  feeling  about  I 
realized  that  I  had  been  swallowed  by  a  whale  and  that 
I  was  in  his  stomach.  I  could  still  breathe,  though 
with  much  difficulty.  I  had  a  feeling  of  insupportable 
heat,  and  it  seemed  as  if  I  were  being  boiled  alive. 

"  '  The  horrible  thought  that  I  was  doomed  to  perish 


72  STORY  OF  JONAH 

according  to  all  modern  works  on 
zoology,  is  thirty  feet. 

The  noted  French  naturalist 
Lacepede  states  that  sea  dogs  can 
swallow  animals  much  larger  thaa 
a  man  without  mutilating  them. 
His  exact  words,  as  published  in  his 
"Histoire  des  Poissons,"  are  the 
following  :  "  Sea  dogs  have  a  lower 
jaw  of  nearly  six  feet  in  its  semi- 
circular extent,  which  enables  us 

in  the  whale's  belly  tortured  me,  and  my  anguish  was 
intensified  by  the  calm  and  silence  that  reigned  about 
me.  Finally  I  lost  the  consciousness  of  my  frightful 
situation.' 

"James  Bartley,  the  English  papers  add,  is  known 
to  be  one  of  the  most  hardy  of  whalemen.  But  his  ex- 
perience in  the  whale's  stomach  was  so  terrible  that  he 
was  obliged  to  undergo  treatment  in  a  London  hospital 
on  his  return. 

"Nevertheless,  his  general  state  of  health  was  not 
seriously  affected  by  this  accident.  The  only  effect 
was  that  his-skin  was,  as  it  were,  tanned  by  the  action 
of  the  gastric  juice. 

"The  captain  of  the  Star  of  the  East  adds  that  cases 
where  furious  whales  have  swallowed  men  are  not  rare, 
but  that  this  was  the  first  time  that  he  ever  saw  the 
victim  come  out  alive  after  his  experience." 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      73 

to  understand  how  they  can  swal- 
low entire  animals  as  large  as  or 
larger  than  ourselves." 

And  it  is  well  known  by  every 
zoologist,  that  the  voracity  of  sea 
dogs  and  indeed  that  of  the  entire 
shark  family,  is  such  that  they 
never  chew  their  food  but  swallow 
everything  they  can  without  chew- 
ing. Blumenbach,  the  eminent 
German  zoologist,  in  his  "Manual 
of  Natural  History,"  is  authority 
for  the  statement  that  sea  dogs 
have  been  taken  weighing  five 
tons,  and  that  a  horse  has  been 
found  whole  in  the  stomach  of  a 
sea  dog.  (See  also  **  Annals  of 
Nat.  Hist.,"  October,  1862,  p.  277.) 

The  naturalist  Miiller  confirms 
this  statement  of  Blumenbach  and 
describes  a  shark  found  near  the 


74  STORY  OF  JONAH 


island  of  Marguerite  which  had 
swallowed  a  large  horse  without 
mutilating  it. 

The  distinguished  ichthyologist 
Giinther  speaks  of  one  of  these 
sharks  in  which  was  found  un- 
mutilated  a  sea  calf  that  was  as 
large  as  an  ox. 

Another  naturalist,  M.  Briiniche, 
is  authority  for  the  statement  that 
a  shark  was  taken  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean near  Marseilles,  in  which  were 
two  tunnies  whose  normal  weight 
is  a  thousand  pounds ;  in  addition 
to  these  tunnies  was  a  man  fully 
dressed,  his  clothing  being  untorn. 

On  the  grounds  of  higher  criti- 
cism, have  we  not,  therefore,  heard 
enough  of  the  talk  that  whales  and 
sea-monsters  do  not  have  throats 
large  enough  to  swallow  men  ? 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      75 

Allow  us  in  this  connection  to 
call   attention  to   one   more   fact. 

Pliny  in  the  first  century,  50 
A.D.,  gives  an  account  of  the  skele- 
ton of  a  sea-monster  forty  feet  in 
length,  "whose  ribs  were  higher 
than  those  of  the  Indian  elephant." 
This  skeleton,  Pliny  says,  "  was 
brought  from  Joppa,  a  city  of 
Judea,  and  exhibited  in  Rome  by 
M.  Scaurus."  ^ 

Now  we  venture  to  say  that  if 
our  higher  critics  were  arguing  on 
the  affirmative  side  of  the  question, 
that  is,  for  the  credibility  of  the 
story,  they  would  suggest,  if  they 
did  not  strongly  contend,  that  this 
skeleton  which  Pliny  saw  on  exhi- 
bition in  Rome  was  that  of  the  very 
sea-monster  that  swallowed  Jonah. 

»  Plin.,  Hist.  Nat,,  i,  ix,  c.  4. 


76  STORY  OF  JONAH 

And  there  would  be  nothing  im- 
probable if  they  further  conjectured 
that  that  sea-monster  was  stranded 
on  the  shores  of  Joppa  at  the  time 
he  cast  the  prophet  on  dry  land, 
and  that  many  years  later  the  bones 
of  this  sea-monster,  with  other  fos- 
sils, were  collected  and  exhibited 
by  M.  Scaurus  ;  for  the  Romans  at 
that  time  were  making  extensive 
collections  of  fossils  and  other  nat- 
ural history  curiosities  in  different 
parts  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

But  bear  in  mind  we  do  not 
say  that  this  skeleton  of  which 
Pliny  speaks  was  that  of  the  identi- 
cal sea-monster  which  swallowed 
Jonah,  but  the  supposition  that  it 
was  the  one,  we  give  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  methods  of  higher  criti- 
cism in  dealing  with  historic  sub- 
jects. 


AND   HIGHER    CRITICISM.      77 

Indeed,  we  may  presume  that  the 
critic  would  go  a  step  further,  and 
say  that  if  the  whale  came  near 
enough  to  the  shore  to  cast  the 
prophet  upon  or  near  to  the  dry  land 
he  would  of  necessity  be  stranded, 
and  that  the  stranding  of  the  whale 
was  what  secured  for  Jonah  great 
notoriety  in  Joppa  and  an  eager 
hearing  in  the  city  of  Nineveh. 

But  the  statements  in  the  story 
of  Jonah  which  present  the  most 
serious  difficulty  are  that  the 
prophet  was  preserved  alive  and 
in  full  possession  of  consciousness, 
though  remaining  three  days  and 
nights  in  the  stomach  of  the  sea- 
monster,  and  that  subsequently  he 
escaped  in  safety  to  dry  land.^ 


1  Higher  criticism  leads    us  to  say,  however,  that 
according  to  the  Jewish  method  of  computing  time 


78  STORY  OF  JONAH 

Now  if  the  reader  will  grant  us 
permission  we  will  pass  by  these 
so-called  incredible  parts  of  the 
story  for  a  few  moments  in  order 
to  inquire  if  there  are  not  in  the 
concluding  parts  certain  important 
and  suggestive  matters  that,  in 
the  light  of  higher  criticism,  are 
reasonable  and  credible. 
/.  The  point  we  make  is  this,  if 
Jonah  really  experienced  the  perils 
and  miraculous  deliverances  re- 
corded in  the  book  of  his  proph- 
ecy, then  there  would  be  nothing 
incredible  in  all  that  follows. 


Jonah  need  not  necessarily  have  remained  in  the  sea- 
monster's  stomach  three  full  days  and  three  full  nights. 
If  he  were  there  thirty-six,  or  thirty,  or  even  twenty- 
five  hours,  it  could  have  been  said  he  "  was  in  the  belly 
of  the  fish  three  days  and  three  nights,"  provided 
he  were  there  one  whole  day  and  night  (twenty-four 
hours),  and  any  part  of  the  preceding  day  or  night, 
and  any  part  of  the  succeeding  day  or  night.  (See 
page  97.) 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      79 

The  fact,  for  instance,  that  after 
his  deliverance  he  went  to  Nine- 
veh, as  he  had  been  commissioned 
to  do,  is  certainly  not  incredible. 

Would  not  a  peril  and  deliv- 
erance, such  as  are  alleged,  in  all 
likelihood  result  in  leading  the 
prophet  into  a  path  of  most  im- 
plicit obedience  ?  What  had  he 
to  fear  from  the  face  of  man,  after 
having  stood  face  to  face  with  that 
most  loathsome  and  distressing  of 
deaths  ?  After  such  an  experi- 
ence, even  though  he  had  been  the 
timid  and  dovelike  man  his  name 
indicates,  it  is  not  an  unreasonable 
conjecture  that  in  a  day  he  was 
changed  into  a  fearless  prophet  of 
Jehovah. 

Nor  is  there  anything  incredible 
in  the  attentive  hearing  given  to 


80  STORY  OF  JONAH 

Jonah  by  the  people.  The  news 
of  what  had  happened  were  doubt- 
less noised  through  the  streets  and 
marts  of  Joppa,  and  by  couriers 
were  despatched  to  Nineveh. 

Especially  would  this  be  proba- 
ble, if  the  sea-monster  had  been 
stranded  on  the  shores  of  Joppa. 
But  without  any  such  visible  in- 
centive or  reason  we  easily  can 
imagine  that  despatches  such  as 
these  would  be  forwarded  to  the 
Assyrian  capital :  — 

Jonah,  a  prophet  of  Israel,  sent 
to  announce  the  destruction  of  our 
city,  fled,  was  thrown  into  the  sea, 
was  swallowed  by  a  sea-monster, 
was  delivered,  but  is  again  on  his 
way  to  Nineveh.  These  reports 
or  any  similar  ones  in  that  super- 
stitious age  would  excite  the  live- 
liest interest. 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.      81 

And,  as  suggested,  Jonah  was  in 
condition  to  meet  fully  any  expec- 
tations awakened. 

That  is,  if  this  peril  actually 
had  been  experienced,  and  if  from 
it  Jonah  had  escaped,  how  earnest 
and  thrilling  must  have  been  his 
words  while  passing  through  the 
lordly  streets  of  that  great  city ; 
pausing  in  this  court  and  that 
square ;  before  this  temple  and 
that  palace  ;  announcing  the  doom 
of  temple,  palace  wall,  turret,  and 
tower,  unless  the  king,  the  lords, 
and  the  people  end  their  iniquity, 
repent  of  their  sins,  and  make  their 
peace  with  God. 

A  man  who  had  just  escaped 
from  the  jaws  of  death  —  from 
such  jaws  of  death  —  would  in  all 
likelihood  henceforth  speak  as  be 


/ 


82  STORY  OF  JONAH 

cometh  a  servant  and  prophet  of 
the  great  Jehovah.  Jonah  must 
have  been,  as  we  say,  dead  in 
earnest  when  he  entered  the  city. 
The  glow  of  the  supernatural  must 
have  been  upon  him,  beaming  from 
his  face,  flashing  from  his  eye,  and 
trembling  in  his  words.  If,  after 
some  outburst  of  warning  or  en- 
treaty, he  were  asked,  "  What 
makes  you,  O  prophet  of  Israel, 
so  much  in  earnest .? "  he  well 
could  have  replied,  "  Earnest  I  if 
you  had  been  where  I  have,  you, 
too,  would  be  in  earnest."  To 
such  speakers  the  people  always 
give  heed.  ''  Man,"  as  the  pro- 
fessor of  oratory  is  accustomed  to 
say,  "  has  no  majesty  like  earnest- 
ness." 

Macaulay   characterizes  Demos- 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.      83 

thenes*  oratory  as  "  reason  made 
red  hot  by  passion."  No  wonder, 
therefore,  that  the  Athenians  lis- 
tened to  him  when  he  uttered  his 
warnings  to  the  Greeks  and  thun- 
dered his  invectives  against  Philip. 
"  I  go  to  hear  Rowland  Hill,"  said 
Sheridan,  **  because  his  ideas  come 
red  hot  from  his  heart."  Men  love 
to  hear  such  speech  and  will  heed  it. 
Can  one  suppose,  therefore,  that 
Jonah  could  have  had  those  mar- 
velous experiences  on  shipboard 
and  in  the  sea,  and  then  have 
entered  the  city  of  Nineveh  with 
no  ardor,  have  used  the  prosy 
speech  of  some  dull  doctor  of 
divinity  and  have  left  the  people 
unmoved  ?  Nay,  his  words  and 
his  whole  being  must  have  been 
surcharged  with  the  thunders  and 


84  STORY  OF  JONAH 

lightnings  of  oratory ;  and  those 
ignorant  and  superstitious  people, 
while  listening,  must  have  been 
awestruck ;  and  the  guilty  king 
and  nobles,  knowing  that  "  rebel- 
lion was  chronic  in  many  of  the 
provinces  of  Nineveh,  and  that 
the  loss  of  a  single  battle  might 
bring  to  their  gates  nations  infuri- 
ated with  long  oppression,"  would 
be  filled  with  alarm  and  excite- 
ment. 

Any  one  at  all  acquainted  with 
the  human  heart  ought  also  to 
know  that  **  remorse  for  the  wrong, 
the  robbery,  and  violence  of  many 
years,"  when  awakened,  will  blanch 
the  cheek  of  the  mightiest  kings 
on   their  thrones. 

Why  then  should  it  be  thought 
strange  that  the  people  and  rulers 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.       85 

of  Nineveh  were  frightened  at  the 
eloquence,  earnestness,  and  hero- 
ism of  this  prophet  of  Israel,  and 
that  the  great,  proud,  and  wicked 
city  speedily  surrendered  at  his 
command  ? 

Surely  our  higher  critics  need 
not  be  told  that  as  a  matter  of  fact 
there  have  been  many  times  when 
the  fears  of  those  Oriental  people 
have  been  raised  almost  to  the 
pitch  of  terror  by  the  announce- 
ment of  some  impending  doom. 

"  I  have  known,"  says  Layard, 
"a  priest  to  frighten  a  whole 
Mussulman  town  to  tears  and  re- 
pentance by  publicly  proclaiming 
that  he  had  received  a  divine 
commission  to  announce  a  com- 
ing earthquake  or  plague." 

Jonah's   earnestness  must  have 


86  STORY  OF  JONAH 

been  of  a  far  bolder  and  more 
impressive  type  than  that  of  one 
who  attempts  deceit.  He  had 
been,  as  one  might  say,  converted, 
and  would  speak  with  convictions 
and  a  fearlessness  like  those  of 
Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost ;  on 
that  day  men  by  scores  and  hun- 
dreds trembled  and  smote  their 
breasts.^ 

Jonah's  impassioned  earnestness 
and  ''  uncouth  Semitic  tongue " 
must  have  given  to  his  utterances 
a  forcefulness  like  that  of  Peter  of 
Amiens,  like  that  of  Capistrano 
of  Abruzzi,  like  that  of  others  of 
about  that  period  (1050),  and  like 
that  of  the  almost  frantic  preacher 
who,  in  the  last  days  of  Jerusalem, 
during  the  siege  by  Titus,  struck 

lActs  2:37-41. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      87 

common  men  with  terror  and  made 
them  tremble. 

And  higher  criticism  should  not 
overlook  the  well-known  fact  that 
kings  and  nobles,  as  well  as  the 
common  people,  have  trembled  and 
repented  under  the  simple  presen- 
tation of  God's  truth  from  lips 
touched  with  a  kind  of  inspired 
eloquence.  It  was  thus  when 
Nathan  confronted  David  ;  thus 
when  Paul  was  summoned  before 
Felix ;  thus  when  Luther  faced 
the  Diet  of  Worms ;  and  thus 
when  George  Whitefield  preached 
in  England,  and  men  of  all  ranks 
withered  under  the  burning  rays 
of  inspired  truth  as  it  came  from 
his  lips. 

Why,  then,  we  repeat,  do  the 
critic  and  sceptic  wonder  at  what 


STORY  OF  JONAH 


followed  when  Jonah,  after  an  ex- 
perience such  as  no  other  man  has 
ever  had,  and  lived,  stood  in  the 
streets  of  the  city  of  Nineveh  ? 

'*  So  the  people  of  Nineveh  believed 
God,  and  proclaimed  a  fast,  and  put  on 
sackcloth,  from  the  greatest  of  them  even 
to  the  least  of  them. 

*'  For  word  came  unto  the  king  of  Nin- 
eveh, and  he  arose  from  his  throne,  and 
he  laid  his  robe  from  him,  and  covered  him 
with  sackcloth,  and  sat  in  ashes. 

"  And  he  caused  it  to  be  proclaimed 
and  published  through  Nineveh  by  the 
decree  of  the  king  and  his  nobles,  saying, 
Let  neither  man  nor  beast,  herd  nor 
flock,  taste  any  thing :  let  them  not  feed, 
nor  drink  water : 

•'  But  let  man  and  beast  be  covered 
with  sackcloth,  and  cry  mightily  unto 
God  :  yea,  let  them  turn  every  one  from 
his  evil  way,  and  from  the  violence  that  is 
in  their  hands. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      89 

"  Who  can  tell  if  God  will  turn  and  re- 
pent, and  turn  away  from  his  fierce  anger, 
that  we  perish  not?"  (Jonah,  chap,  iii, 
5-9) 

Our  higher  critics,  we  hope, 
are  not  unfamiliar  with  the  fact 
that  these  representations  which, 
though  to  us  seemingly  are  ex- 
travagant, perfectly  harmonize  with 
what  is  known  of  those  Eastern 
countries.  Herodotus  and  other 
classical  writers  are  authority  for 
the  statement  that,  on  account  of 
the  sins  or  misfortunes  of  the  peo- 
ple, it  was  an  Asiatic  custom  to 
cover  with  badges  of  mourning 
both  men  and  cattle.^ 

Nor  is  it  incredible  to  those -who 
know  God,  that  he  had  mercy  upon 


1  Herod.,  IX,   24.     Comp.   Horn.,  II.    1,  XVII,  V. 
426;  Virgil,  iEneid,  XI,  86,  c.  e.;  Plut.,  Alex.,  c.  72. 


90  STORY   OF  JONAH 

the  penitent  people  of  Nineveh, 
and  that  their  city  was  given  an 
additional  probation,  remaining  in 
her  glory  two  hundred  years  after 
this  visit  of  Jonah.  She  was  spared 
because  of  her  penitence  and  re- 
form.^  But  when  other  rulers  and 
peoples  arose  who  had  "  no  fear  of 
God  before  their  eyes,"  when  the 
city  again  was  given  up  to  idolatry 
and  crime,  then  God's  mercy  no 
longer  stood  in  the  way  of  his  jus- 
tice, and,  as  in  the  case  of  many 
other  rebellious  nations,  her  doom 
was  sealed,  and  Nineveh  was  wiped 
out  of  existence. 

We  must  now  return  to  the  two 
incidents  in  the  narrative  which 
were  passed  in  silence  a  few  mo- 
ments ago  ;  namely,  Jonah's  preser- 

*Jer.  i8:8;  Ez.  18:21;  33:11;  Am.  7:3,  6. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      91 

vation  in  the  sea-monster's  stom- 
ach and  his  escape  from  it. 

All  other  parts  of  the  story,  as 
we  have  seen,  are  credible,  credible 
in  themselves  considered,  and  are 
supported  also  by  the  best  of  histor- 
ical and  exegetical  evidence.  With 
the  exception,  therefore,  of  these 
two  apparently  incredible  inci- 
dents, our  naturalistic  higher  crit- 
ics, as  well  as  our  literary  critics, 
can  point  to  nothing  to  which 
they  reasonably  can  object.  But  in 
these  two  incidents  they  think 
they  have  found  an  insurmount- 
able barrier  to  anything  like  a  ra- 
tional belief.  And  consequently 
the  believer  who  contends  that 
these  questionable  parts  of  the 
story  of  Jonah  are  history  and  not 
fiction,  is  challenged  to  show  why 


92  STORY  OF  JONAH 

he,  as  well  as  the  story,  should  not 
be  held  up  as  the  butt  of  ridicule. 

And  perhaps  there  are  readers 
of  these  pages  who  now  are  asking 
if  it  is  possible  that  any  intelligent 
man  can  believe  these  incredible 
parts  of  the  book  of  Jonah. 

Though  Jonah  might  have  been 
an  historical  character  ;  though  he 
might  have  been  sent  to  Nineveh  ; 
though  he  might  have  attempted 
to  escape  by  going  on  a  sea  voy- 
age ;  though  he  might  have  been 
thrown  into  the  sea,  and  even 
though  he  might  have  been  seized 
by  a  sea-monster,  and  swallowed 
and  suffered  no  form  of  mutila- 
tion, still  must  it  not  be  conceded 
that  in  that  horrible  imprisonment 
he  could  have  retained  his  con- 
sciousness only  a  few  minutes,  cer- 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.      93 

tainly  not  so  long  as  is  claimed  in 
the  record  ? 

This,  then,  in  brief  is  the  chal- 
lenge of  the  sceptic  :  The  retain- 
ing of  one's  consciousness  for  the 
length  of  time  alleged,  and  under 
such  conditions  as  are  alleged,  is 
impossible ;  and  after  such  con- 
finement, though  for  only  twenty- 
five  hours,  there  is  no  power  or 
agency  on  earth  that  could  have 
restored  "  the  partly  digested 
man  "  to  consciousness. 

Now  we  hope  it  will  not  surprise 
the  reader  when  we  add  that  in 
this  opinion  of  the  rationalistic 
sceptic  we  fully  concur,  —  unless 
God  could  and  did  miraculously 
interpose  to  save  the  disobedient 
prophet. 

But   on  the  other  hand,  unless 


94  STORY  OF  JONAH 

we  admit  the  possibility  of  such 
divine  interpositions,  we  are  con- 
fronted by  a  multitude  of  difficul- 
ties. Unless  we  admit  the  possi- 
bility of  such  divine  interpositions, 
and  unless  we  admit  the  alleged 
facts  of  Bible  history,  though  in- 
volving divine  interpositions,  the 
foundations  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion are  gone,  and  our  orthodox 
faith  is  no  longer  worth  contending 
for.  Christianity,  in  its  depend- 
ence upon  its  facts,  differs,  in  the 
light  of  the  highest  criticism,  from 
all  other  of  the  world's  religions. 
Other  religious  systems  are 
speculative ;  their  facts  are  inci- 
dental. The  facts  of  the  Christian 
religion,  on  the  other  hand,  are  real 
and  supreme.  We  do  not  say  that 
a  man  cannot  be  saved  unless  he 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      95 

believes  the  story  of  Jonah,  but  i 
we  do  say  that  if  Adam  and  Abra- 
ham never  lived,  if  God  did  not 
give  the  law  to  Moses,  if  he  did 
not  lead  in  a  special  manner  the 
children  of  Israel  through  the  wil- 
derness, and  if  other  records  of 
the  Old  Testament  are  not  true; 
also  if  Christ  was  merely  a  myth, 
if  he  neither  lived,  wrought  mir- 
acles, died,  nor  rose  again,  then, 
at  least  in  the  judgment  of  any  one 
who  has  the  least  respect  for  log- 
ical methods  and  conclusions,  the 
whole  superstructure  of  Christian- 
ity, grand  as  it  is,  falls  to  the 
ground. 

The  evangelical  Christian  must 
cleave  to  the  facts,  or  else  be  con- 
sistent and  abandon  the  whole  sys- 
tem.    Logically  there  is  for  him 


96  STORY  OF  JONAH 

no  third  course  to  pursue.  The 
Bible  records  and  Christianity 
always  have  been,  and  always  must 
be,  one  and  inseparable. 

The  natural  and  supernatural 
events  recorded  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, repeated  and  emphasized  in 
the  New,  are  likewise  one  and 
inseparable.  A  blow  at  the  Old 
Testament  is  a  blow  at  the  New. 

And  what  stronger  possible  con- 
firmation could  there  be  of  what 
we  are  saying  than  our  Lord's 
explicit  references  to  this  same 
story  of  Jonah  t  Weigh  for  a  mo- 
ment his  announcement,  and  no- 
tice, too,  that  his  words  are  such  as 
must  have  suggested  to  the  Jews 
that  there  was  something  super- 
natural or  miraculous  in  the  proph- 
et's escape  from  the  perils  of  the 


AA^D  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      97 

sea,  inasmuch  as  our  Lord  makes 
that  escape  the  type  of  his  own 
death  and  resurrection  :  —  ' 

"  Then  certain  of  the  scribes  and  of  the 
Pharisees  answered,  saying.  Master,  we 
would  see  a  sign  from  thee. 

•'  But  he  answered  and  said  to  them. 
An  evil  and  adulterous  generation  seeketh 
after  a  sign,  and  there  shall  no  sign  be 
given  to  it,  but  the  sign  of  the  prophet 
Jonas. 

"For  as  Jonas  was  three  days  and 
three  nights  in  the  whale's  belly :  so  shall 
the  Son  of  man  be  three  days  and  three 
nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth/ 

1  As  suggested  on  a  previous  page  (77)  only  a  brief 
study  in  higher  criticism  is  necessary  to  throw  light 
upon  a  difficulty  that  is  sometimes  raised  as  to  the 
length  of  time  our  Lord  was  in  the  grave,  which  diffi- 
culty is  stated  in  this  form:  "  If  Christ  was  crucified  on 
Friday  and  rose  on  Sunday,  how  can  it  be  said  that  he 
was  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  tomb?  " 

In  the  Jerusalem  Talmud  we  learn  that  a  day  and  a 
night  together  make  up  what  is  called  an  ni"il?.  or  in 
Greek  a  wx^-qfi-epov ,  a  night-day,  and  that  any  part 
of  such  a  period  is  counted  as  the  whole.  {Conip.  Gen. 
II :  13,  20;  I  Sam.  30:  12,  13;  2  Chron.  10:  5,  12;  Hosea 


STORY  OF  JONAH 


"  The  men  of  Nineveh  shall  rise  in 
judgment  with  this  generation,  and  shall 
condemn  it :  because  they  repented  at  the 
preaching  of  Jonas  ;  and  behold,  a  greater 
than  Jonas  is  here. 

' '  The  queen  of  the  south  shall  rise  up  in 
the  judgment  with  this  generation,  and  shall 
condemn  it :  for  she  came  from  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth  to  hear  the  wis- 
dom of  Solomon ;  and  behold  a  greater 
than  Solomon  is  here."  ^ 


6:2;  Bab.,  fol.  86,  1.;  Bab.  Avod.  Zar.,  fol.  75,  1.  a; 
Schabb.,  fol.  12.) 

The  learned  Dr.  John  Lightfoot  —  there  is  no  higher 
authority  on  this  subject  —  speaks  thus  in  his  treatise 
entitled  "  Hebrew  and  Talmudical  Exercitations  upon 
the  Four  Gospels"  (Vol.  II,  Part  I,  page  192): 
"  Therefore  Christ  may  truly  be  said  to  have  been  in 
his  grave  three,  nD*ll'>  Onath,  or  rpeis  vvxQ-r\\x.e(iov, 
three  night-days,  when  yet  the  greatest  part  of  the  first 
was  wanting,  and  the  night  altogether,  and  the  greater 
part  by  far  of  the  third  day  also  was  wanting.  With  this 
view  the  consent  of  the  schools  and  the  dialect  of  the 
nation  agree.  For  the  least  part  of  the  Onath  in- 
cluded the  whole.  So  that  according  to  this  idiom 
that  small  part  of  the  third  day  upon  which  Christ 
arose  may  be  computed  for  the  whole  of  that  day  and  of 
the  night  following  it." 

^Matt.  12:  38-42;  comp.  Matt.  16:4;  Luke  11: 
29-32. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.      99 

Now,  as  every  student  of  New 
Testament  Greek  knows,  there  is 
scarcely  a  saying  of  our  Lord  that 
is  better  authenticated  than  this 
passage.  When,  therefore,  the 
sceptic,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying 
his  point,  attempts  to  class  these 
words  among  spurious  or  interpo- 
lated passages,  he  is  confronted  by 
an  array  of  authorities  and  facts  in 
higher  and  the  highest  criticism 
that  leave  him  no  substantial  foot- 
hold on  which  to  stand. 

And  what  makes  these  sayings 
of  our  Lord  overwhelmingly  con- 
clusive against  the  mythical  theory 
is  that  he  referred  to  Jonah  as  an 
historical  character  in  the  same 
connection  in  which  he  referred  to 
other  historical  characters,  —  Sol- 
omon   and    the    **  queen    of     the 


100  STORY  OF  JONAH 

south."  This  mingling  in  the 
same  sentence  of  real  and  ficti- 
tious names  would  be,  rhetorically 
and  ethically,  almost  an  unpardon- 
able sin,  and  of  such  a  sin  Christ 
could  not  be  guilty. 

Or,  stating  the  matter  more  point- 
edly, we  are  forced  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  if  these  incidents  re- 
corded in  the  book  of  Jonah  are 
fabrications  instead  of  facts,  then 
these  unqualified  references  to 
them  by  our  Lord  imperil  either 
his  intelligence  or  his  integrity. 
For  if  this  story  is  a  myth,  Christ 
ought  to  have  known  it,  and  not 
have  treated  it  as  a  fact.  Such 
treatment  would  be  dishonest.  Or 
if  he  supposed  the  story  to  be  a 
fact,  when  in  reality  it  was  only 
a   myth,  then   he  lacked  the   wis- 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.    101 

dom  commonly  attributed  to  him. 
Either  horn  of  the  dilemma  would 
be  perilous  to  our  faith. 

But  this  is  only  one  among 
many  instances  where  the  founda- 
tions of  New  Testament  Chris- 
tianity are  completely  undermined 
unless  the  facts,  however  remark- 
able and  surprising,  are  without 
qualification  admitted   to  be  true. 

It  was  a  series  of  historic  facts, 
including  those  that  are  supernat- 
ural, which  furnished  the  basis  of 
Peter's  sermon  on  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost ;  without  those  facts,  his 
sermon  would  have  neither  pith 
nor  point.  It  was  a  series  of  his- 
toric facts,  including  those  that 
are  supernatural,  upon  which  Paul 
based  his  remarkable  sermon  in 
the    synagogue    at    Antioch  ;     if 


10^-  Sl'ORY  OF  JONAH 

those  facts  are  discredited,  the 
sermon  would  be  a  tissue  of  false- 
hoods. It  was  also  a  series  of  his- 
toric facts,  including  those  that 
are  supernatural,  which  more  than 
once  was  the  basis  of  our  Lord's 
discourse  before  the  Jewish  rulers 
and  people.  In  a  word,  if  we 
eliminate  the  supernatural  from 
the  Old  and  New  Testament  Scrip- 
tures, there  will  be  left  nothing 
but  odds  and  ends  and  shreds. 

And  this  also  is  true :  the  alleged 
fact  that  God  wrought  a  miracle 
in  behalf  of  Jonah  is  no  more  in- 
credible than  any  one  of  the  scores 
of  miracles  recorded  in  the  Bible. 
If  we  deny  one,  we  must  deny 
them  all.  The  story  of  Jonah  is 
no  more  incredible  than  the  part- 
ing of  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea ; 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.      103 

no  more  incredible  than  the  calling 
of  fire  from  heaven  by  Elijah  ;  no 
more  incredible  than  the  preserva- 
tion of  Daniel  in  the  den  of  lions  ; 
no  more  incredible  than  the  walk- 
ing of  his  three  companions  in  the 
midst  of  the  fiery  furnace ;  no 
more  incredible  than  the  story  of 
Christ's  death,  burial,  and  resur- 
rection, of  which  Jonah's  experi- 
ences always  have  been  regarded 
as  prophetic  types,  and  upon 
Christ's  resurrection  rest  in  su- 
preme dependence  the  faith  and 
hope  of  the  whole  Christian  world. 
Forcefully  has  Paul  presented  the 
argument :  — 

"And  if  Christ  be  not  raised,  your 
faith  is  vain ;  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins. 

"Then  they  also  which  are  fallen 
asleep  in  Christ  are  perished. 


104  STORY  OF  JONAH 

"  If  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope  in 
Christ,  we  are  of  all  men  most  misera- 
ble."! 

Is,  therefore,  the  question  still 
asked.  Why  at  this  late  day  do 
evangelical  Christians  believe  the 
antiquated  and  incredible  story  of 
Jonah's  peril  and  deliverance  ? 
The  answer  is  manifest ;  it  is  be- 
cause there  is  for  such  Christians 
no  logical  escape  from  this  belief. 
This  narrative  and  others,  which  in 
their  supernatural  dependences  are 
like  it,  are  vital  in  the  Christian 
religion  ;  and  that  religion,  except 
for  the  most  valid  of  reasons,  is 
too  grand  in  its  practical  and  ben- 
eficial results  to  be  deprived  of 
its  legitimate  and  historic  founda- 
tions. 

1 1  Cor.  is:  17-10. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM,     105 

But  at  this  point  in  the  discus- 
sion the  destructive  naturalistic 
critic  meets  the  beUever  in  what 
seems  to  be  the  final  encounter. 
He  entrenches  himself  behind 
what  is  variously  called  the  liter- 
ary, the  scientific,  and  the  critical 
method.  That  is,  he  assumes  the 
role  of  a  higher  scientific  critic, 
and  as  such  he  says  :  — 

"This  story  of  Jonah,  with  its 
supernatural  interpositions,  I  do 
not  and  I  cannot  believe.  I  see 
everywhere  in  the  universe  order 
and  law.  I  therefore  must  accept 
the  remorselessness  of  the  be- 
liever's logic,  and  at  once  and  for- 
ever abandon  the  system  of  super- 
natural religion." 

But  in  reply  let  us  remind  this 
destructive  rationalist    critic   that 


106  STORY  OF  JONAH 

he  should  move  cautiously,  for  his 
own  logic  may  prove  as  remorse- 
less as  ours. 

This  is  what  we  mean,  that  no 
one  knows  better  than  the  educa- 
ted sceptic  that  the  whole  question 
of  the  origin  of  life  is  to-day 
passing  into  the  realms  of  the 
supernatural. 

The  life  cell  has  been  hunted  for 
with  scalpel  and  microscope  by  a 
thousand  scientists,  but  cannot  be 
found.  We  need  not  go  into  par- 
ticulars, but  there  is  not  a  natural- 
ist who  does  not  know  that  science 
is  to-day  pointing  her  inflexible 
index  finger  to  a  time  when  the 
entire  substance  of  the  earth  was 
nothing  but  glowing  vapor.  After 
cooling  off,  condensing,  and  hard- 
ening  how   could    a    living    man 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.    107 

come  upon  its  surface  ?  is  the  ques- 
tion that  naturalism  has  stumbled 
over,  and  at  this  very  hour  is  sink- 
ing in  the  mire  of  the  pit  into 
which  it  has  fallen.  Does  the 
sceptic  suggest  that  the  first  man 
is  accounted  for  on  the  ground  of 
spontaneous  generation  and  of 
evolution  by  natural  selection,  or 
by  the  survival  of  the  fittest  ? 

Our  reply  is  that  there  is  no 
proof,  there  is  not  a  shred  of  evi- 
dence in  support  of  such  develop- 
ment ;  and  of  this  fact,  we  repeat, 
nobody  knows  better  than  the  ed- 
ucated sceptic.  He  knows,  and  he 
ought  to  know  that  the  educated 
believer  knows,  that  the  naturalist 
is  to-day  only  guessing  at  the  ori- 
gin of  things,  and  guessing  with 
every  fact  of  science  against  him. 


108  STORY  OF  JONAH 

This  guessing  is  not  literary,  it  is 
not  scientific,  it  is  not  critical. 

If  the  sceptic,  who  attempts  to 
support  naturalism  or  to  overthrow 
supernaturalism  by  guesswork,  has 
any  claims  to  the  title,  "higher 
critic,"  then  higher  criticism  is  a 
misnomer,  and  from  a  scientific 
point  of  view  is  despicable. 

We  will,  however,  for  the  sake 
of  the  argument,  admit  that  man 
originated  in  common  with  the 
oak  tree  from  something  still 
lower,  the  lichen  or  the  moss. 
We  repeat,  there  is  not  a  particle 
of  evidence  of  such  transmuta- 
tions ;  but  admit  them  all  the 
same. 

The  next  question  to  be  asked 
and  answered  is  this.  Whence  the 
lichen  and  the  moss  .-* 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.      109 

They  have  come  from  something 
still  lower,  is  the  reply  of  our  nat- 
uralistic sceptic. 

But  there  is  no  evidence  of  such 
a  coming,  and  the  one  who  suggests 
it  is  still  guessing,  and  guesswork, 
or  a  *'  maybe "  we  repeat,  is  not 
and  never  can  be  scientific  proof 
or  evidence. 

As  this  is  one  of  the  most  vital 
points  in  this  part  of  the  discussion, 
we  may  be  allowed  to  fortify  it 
with  the  opinions  of  two  or  three 
men  whose  qualification  to  speak 
on  this  subject  no  one  will  ques- 
tion. 

The  first  is  Dr.  Etheridge,  Ex- 
aminer of  the  Science  Division  of 
the  British  Museum,  who  also  is 
one  of  England's  most  famous  ex- 
perts in  fossilology. 


110  STORY  OF  JONAH 

On  being  asked  by  another  gen- 
tleman of  no  inconsiderable  scien- 
tific attainment,  this  question, 
"  Are  the  orders  of  creation  seen 
in  the  fossils  of  this  museum  evi- 
dence of  naturalistic  evolution,  or 
of  the  working  out  of  mind  and 
providence  ?  "  the  doctor  replied  : 
*'  In  all  this  great  museum  there  is 
not  a  particle  of  evidence  of  trans- 
mutation of  species.  Nine  tenths 
of  the  talk  of  evolutionists  is  sheer 
nonsense,  not  founded  on  observa- 
tion, and  is  wholly  unsupported  by 
facts.  I  read  all  their  books,  but 
this  museum  is  full  of  proofs  of  the 
utter  falsity  of  their  views." 

Our  second  authority  is  Pro- 
fessor Tyndall.  "  Those  who  hold 
the  doctrine  of  evolution,"  he  says, 
"are   by    no    means    ignorant     of 


AND  HIGHER   CRITICISM.     Ill 

the  uncertainty  of  their  data,  and 
they  yield  to  it  only  a  provisional 
assent.  ...  I  hold  with  Virchow 
that  the  failures  [of  evolutionists] 
have  been  so  lamentable  that  the 
doctrine  is  discredited." 

We  allow  Professor  Mivart  to  be 
the  third  to  speak  for  us,  though 
there  is  a  score  besides.  "  With 
regard  to  the  conception  as  put 
forth  by  Mr.  Darwin  I  cannot 
truly  characterize  it,"  he  says,  "ex- 
cept by  an  epithet  I  employ  with 
great  reluctance ;  .  .  .  I  cannot 
call  it  anything  but  a  puerile  hy- 
pothesis ^  ^ 

We    have   no   hesitation,  there- 

1  If  the  reader  desires  facts  and  additional  quotations 
bearing  upon  the  questions  of  spontaneous  generation 
and  evolution,  he  is  referred  to  the  author's  recent  pub- 
lication, entitled  "  Evolution  or  Creation?  "  for  sale  by 
Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  30  Lafayette  Place,  New 
York. 


112  STOKY   OF  JONAH 

fore,   in    saying    that    naturalistic 
evolution  is  seeing  its  last  days. 

And  so  far  as  spontaneous  gen- 
eration is  concerned  we  have  no 
need  to  delay  a  moment  in  reach- 
ing our  verdict.  Every  genuine 
scientific  man  knows  perfectly  well 
that  so  far  as  accounting  for  the 
beginning  of  things  is  concerned, 
divine  interposition,  or  spontaneous 
generation,  is  at  the  present  time 
the  only  alternative.  But  the  clos- 
ing words  of  Professor  Tyndall's 
lecture  on  the  "  Origin  of  Life," 
before  the  Royal  Institute  at  Lon- 
don, leave  no  alternative.  With 
blanched  cheek  and  bated  breath 
the  naturalistic  scientist  and  critic 
stand  to-day  in  the  presence  of 
divine  interposition  and  nothing 
else. 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.     113 

''This  discourse,"  says  the  pro- 
fessor, ''is  but  a  summing  up  of 
eight  months'  incessant  labor. 
From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of 
the  inquiry  there  is  not  a  shadow 
of  evidence  of  spontaneous  gen- 
eration. There  is,  on  the  con- 
trary, overwhelming  evidence 
against  it.  I  am  led  inexorably 
to  the  conclusion  that  in  the  low- 
est as  in  the  highest  organized 
creatures  the  method  of  nature 
is  that  life  shall  be  the  issue  of 
antecedent  life." 

And  even  Mr.  Darwin  never 
claimed  that  animal  life  or  any 
other  kind  of  life  ever  started  ex- 
cept by  divine  interposition. 

There  remains,  therefore,  in  the 
light  of  the  higher  and  the  high- 
est   scientific    criticism     but  one 


114  STORY  OF  JONAH 

logical  conclusion,  it  is  this  :  The 
infinite  and  eternal  Author  of  life 
must  have  interposed  or  the  earth 
would  have  remained  forever  deso- 
late ;  there  would  have  been  no 
first  oak  to  cast  upon  the  earth  its 
shadow,  and  no  first  man  to  walk 
its  surface.  There  would  have 
been  no  life  of  any  kind.  But  if 
God  can  interpose,  then  the  earth 
could  bring  forth  grass,  and  herb 
yielding  seed  after  its  kind,  and 
every  tree  after  its  kind,  the  fish 
and  the  bird  after  their  kind,  and 
lastly  man  after  his  kind. 

Hence  it  follows  that  the  de- 
structive critic,  who  decided  a  mo- 
ment ago  to  abandon  Christianity 
because  its  logic  required  him  to 
believe  in  miracles,  must  not  only 
abandon    Christianity,    but   if    he 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.     115 

would  be  consistent,  he  must  deny 
his  own  existence,  for  his  very  life 
requires  supernatural  interposition 
as  much  as  did  the  preservation  of 
Jonah  in  the  stomach  of  the  sea- 
monster.  But  the  moment  such 
interposition  is  admitted,  that  mo- 
ment all  riddles  are  solved  and  all 
miracles  are  accounted  for. 

By  such  interpositions  Israel 
could  pass  unharmed  through  the 
midst  of  the  sea ;  Daniel  could 
remain  for  a  night  in  peace  and 
safety  among  the  raving  and  rav- 
ening lions ;  Shadrach,  Meshach, 
and  Abednego  could  walk  unhurt 
in  the  midst  of  the  burning,  fiery 
furnace,  and  Jonah  could  remain 
unharmed  for  three,  or  for  that 
matter,  for  thirty  days  in  the 
stomach  of  a  sea-monster. 


116  STORY  OF  JONAH 

/  Or  we  may  condense  this  part  of 
the  argument  into  two  sentences, 
these :  — 

If  God  coidd  make  Adanty  he 
could  save  Jonah.  He  did  make 
AdafUy  therefore  he  could  save 
Jonah. 

This,  then,  is  our  closing  con- 
fession of  faith  :  We  believe  the 
Bible  narratives,  —  the  creation  of 
Adam,  the  parting  of  the  waters 
of  the  Red  Sea,  the  triumph  of 
Elijah  on  Mount  Carmel,  the  res- 
urrection of  Christ,  the  story  of 
Jonah,  and  all  other  authenticated 
Bible  miracles  because  on  scien- 
tific grounds  they  are  possible; 
because  they  are  supported  by 
circumstantial,  monumental,  and 
other  indisputable  proof,  and  be- 
cause there  were  purposes  of  suf- 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.    117 

ficient  magnitude  to  justify  divine 
interposition. 

We  believe  that  the  jaws  of  the 
sea-monster  opened  and  closed 
upon  the  disobedient  prophet,  but 
God  interposed  and  delivered  him 
in  order  that  the  more  faithfully 
he  might  declare  the  divine  mes- 
sage ;  in  order  that  the  people  of 
Nineveh  might  listen  the  more 
attentively  to  what  he  had  to  say ; 
in  order  that  Jonah's  deliverance 
might  be  a  prophetic  sign  of 
Christ's  resurrection,  and  in  order 
that  his  deliverance  might  also  be 
a  prophetic  sign,  extending  through 
the  ages,  that  God  will  keep  his 
children  in  safety,  though  dead, 
until  the  morning  of  the  resurrec- 
tion. 

We     believe     that     the     tomb 


118  STORY   OF  JONAH 

opened  and  then  closed  upon  the 
dead  body  of  our  Christ,  in  whom 
all  the  fondest  hopes  of  the  world 
are  centered ;  but  that  the  same 
divine  power  that  interposed  to 
save  the  prophet  Jonah  likewise 
interposed  to  raise  the  dead  Sa- 
viour, and  that  he  came  forth  and 
walked  the  earth  to  inspire  our 
faith,  and  then  ascended  to  the 
home  of  God's  dear  family,  and 
there  in  visible  presence  awaits 
the  coming  of  those  who  love  him. 

The  jaws  of  the  earth  to-day  are 
hungry  for  each  one  of  us,  and 
soon  they  will  open  and  close  upon 
our  friends  and  ourselves.  But 
even  then,  in  view  of  the  record 
we  have  been  studying,  with  its 
divine  interpositions,  and  in  view 


AND  HIGHER    CRITICISM.     119 

of  the  events  in  the  life  and  death 
of  Christ,  which  these  events  in 
the  life  of  Jonah  symbolize,  we 
may  hope,  and  we  do  hope,  and 
we  BELIEVE,  that  the  same  divine 
power  which  interposed  for  the  de- 
liverance of  the  prophet,  and  inter- 
posed and  brought  from  the  dead 
the  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
likewise  will  interpose  for  us,  and 
we  shall  come  forth  unharmed  by 
the  touch  of  death,  shall  awake  in 
the  likeness  of  our  Redeemer,  and 
wakening  in  his  likeness  —  we 
shall  live  forever. 


THE    END. 


Professor  Luther  Tracy 
Townsend^s  Books* 


Credo.    Price,  ys  <^iS' 

"  Read  Credo !  How  like  a  trumpet-blast  of  defiance 
the  very  name  rings  out  a  challenge  for  investigation. 
After  careful  examination  of  this  new  defender  of  the 
truth  we  laid  aside  the  book  with  the  wish  that  it  might 
be  placed  in  every  library  and  home  of  our  land."  — 
Christian  Standard. 

Lost  Forever.     Price,  75  cts. 

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book  is  admirable.  The  author  admits  with  sorrow 
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nations  that  forget  God  ';  but  he  cannot  do  aught  than 
tell  the  truth."  —  Christian  Advocate. 

The  Arena  and  the  Throne.    Price,  75  cts. 

"  These  essays  are  characterized  by  earnest  thought- 
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author  has  already  attained."  —  Courier  (Boston). 

God-Man.     Price,  Js  <:ts. 

"  It  is  learned  without  pedantry,  catholic  without 
looseness,  and  up  with  the  times,  and  not  below  the 
truth.  He  is  the  first  American  writer  who  treats  this 
theme  with  the  learning  of  a  pundit,  the  interest  of  a 
novelist,  and  the  orthodoxy  of  a  devotee."  —  Zion's 
Herald  (Boston). 


The  Intermediate  World.    Price,  7s  cts. 

"  While  dissenting  from  the  theory  advanced  by  Dr. 
Townsend,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  we  re- 
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of  an  intermediate  world."  —  Episcopal  Methodist. 

Sword  and  Garment.     Price,  75  cts. 

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he  well  knows  how  to  dispose  of,  would  give  a  copy  to 
every  theological  student  in  the  country,  he  would  do 
a  good  work."  —  T/ie  Golden  Age. 

The  Supernatural  Factor  in  Revivals. 

Price,  y^  els. 

"  Professor  Townsend  gives  a  general  history  of  re- 
ligious revivals,  and  of  the  places  of  individual  religious 
experiences.  He  then  discusses  evangelists  and  revival 
agencies,  dwelling  with  great  power  and  eloquence  upon 
Moody  and  Sankey,  It  possesses  the  ring  of  true  gold." 
—  Providence  Jotirnal. 

Fate  of  Republics,     Price,  yj  cts. 

"  It  is  eminently  a  book  for  the  times.  It  is  an  his- 
torical summary  of  the  republics  past  and  present,  and 
a  thesaurus  of  the  forces  and  principles  which  have 
stimulated  their  growth  or  hastened  their  decline.  The 
author  has  done  a  real  service  to  his  countrymen."  — 
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Mosaic  Record  and  Modern  Science. 

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one  which  we  would  more  gladly  see  in  the  hands  of 
every  intelligent  Bible  student.  We  can  honestly  com- 
mend Dr.  Townsend's  luminous  exposition  of  the  gen- 
eral problem." —  Christiatt  Standard. 

Aft  of  Speech^  Vol*  I^  Studies  in  Poetry 
and  Prose,     Price,  ^o  cts. 

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any  one  desiring  to  perfect  himself  in  the  laws  and 
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composition  combined,  and  is  doubly  worth  its  price." 
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Art  of  Speech,  VoL  H,  Studies  in  Eloquence 
and  Logic,    Price,  jo  cts. 

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more  likely  to  encourage  a  dignified  and  judicious  style 
in  writing  and  speaking." —  Commonivealth  (Boston). 

The  Bible  and  Other  Ancient  \JAzt2X\xtz, 

Price,  j>o  cts. 

Few  theological  books  have  had  a  larger  circulation. 

Evolution  or  Creation? 

Price,  $1.2^. 

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naturalistic  evolutionist  and  then  assails  it.  It  is  con- 
fessed that  he  has  done  this  in  a  way  that  surprises 
those  who  had  thought  the  defenses  of  naturalism 
were  impregnable.  He  takes  the  ground  that  the  ac- 
count in  Genesis  is  literal,  and  makes  the  strongest 
argument  we  have  ever  seen  in  defense  of  his  position. 
We  confess  we  had  not  believed  so  strong  an  argument 
could  be  made  for  that  side  of  the  question." —  The 
Echo. 


Bible  Theology  and  Modem  Thought. 

Price,  75  cts. 

Reviewers  say  this  is,  in  some  respects,  the  ablest 
book  from  the  pen  of  Professor  Townsend. 


Other  pamphlets  and  brief  treatises  of  the 
author  are  the  following :  — 

True  and  Pretended  Christianity. 

Cloth,  50  cts. ;  paper,  2^  cts. 

The  Chinese  Question. 

Cloth,  50  cts. ;  paper,  10  cts. 

Outlines  of  Christian  Theology. 

Price,  40  cts. 

Elements  of  General  and  Christian  Theology. 

Price,  40  cts. 

What  Noted  Men  Think  of  Christ. 

Price,  JO  cts. 

What  Noted  Men  Think  of  the  Bible. 

Price,  10  cts. 

Faith  Work,  Christian   Science  and  Other 
Cures.     Price,  50  cts. 

Any  of  these  books  can  be  ordered  through  Funk  and 
Wagnalls  Company,  30  Lafayette  Place,  New  York,  or 
through  the  author,  114  5th  Street,  Washington,  D.  C. 


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The  story  of  Jonah  in  the  light  of 

mir  llfnii  IM?^°'°^'"'  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1012  00054  8638 


